With the help of volunteers from the community, students and staff members of New Myrnam School participated in the school’s Winter Active Celebration last Wednesday morning.
Even with the blistering mid-February wind, there were a total of 37 students taking up cross-country skis, with another four students strapping on showshoes, for the two-mile trek from near Highway 42 outside of Myrnam to a lodge belonging to the Myrnam River Ridge Riders, the local skidoo club.
“Today was about celebrating the winter season, and encouraging our students to be active and enjoy their winter,” said Thomas Whitfield, assistant principal for the school, adding that students should embrace the season rather than hide from it.
And embrace it they did, with almost all the students making the entire distance through icy conditions. Parts of the track were covered by hard snow, due to sudden freezing and windy conditions on the day.
The younger students who couldn’t make the entire trek had help making it to the cabin, thanks to rides from members of the local skidoo club who volunteered their time and equipment for the annual celebration. The Myrnam Red River Riders also let the school use its lodge to roast hotdogs and enjoy a fire pit at the end of the two-mile trek.
“This is excellent for the kids, it gives them a chance to get some fresh air, and gets them to see what we do as a ski-doo club … it’s good to see a bunch of rosy cheeks out there,” said Brad Straty, a volunteer from the local skidoo club.
According to one volunteer, Victoria Fedirko, this was the third year the school held the event for the students. “It went fantastic; (the students) were still excited at going, even though it was so cold,” said Fedirko, whose daughter, Emily, was one of the many school children who toughed it out by cross-country skiing the entire distance.
Fedirko said that besides giving the students an opportunity to experience the “camaraderie of friendship” in an outdoor winter setting, she hopes that they will see that it wasn’t just the school that put on the event, but friends and the community pulling together to make it happen.
“It was a great team effort on behalf of Myrnam for our kids,” said Whitfield.
