I am planning on taking 14 of my high school students from San Bruno, CA to Idaho this summer for environmental education on the Salmon River. My students come from all over the world (mostly Latin America) and are all low-income. I provide transportation, food and lodging on the road as well as the river trip. The students pay at most $50 each (because they have little to no money). I did this last year with 7 students and it was totally awesome. The kids learned amazing things and one of the 7 is actually now training to be a white water rafting guide.
Here is what one student wrote about the experience:
"Our trip is almost over and in a few hours I will be at home, but these vivid memories and indescribable sensations will definitely not let me forget what I experienced. This trip was very powerful and incredibly atmospheric and I'm sure most felt it. We worked as a team, took care of each other, constantly learned something new, and all this became possible only thanks to you. Thank you very much for this!"
This project is not a school trip. It is too difficult to get a school board to approve of such an outing. Instead it is cobbled together by drawing on resources of three organizations that I volunteer for (Wild Science Explorers, Inspiring Connections Outdoors and Healing Waters). WSE provides the gear and science teacher, ICO provides the river guides and insurance, and HW provides odds and ends that I can't get from the other two groups). None of these organizations as funds to spare. They all operate on a shoestring. I am holding bake sales and begging friends and family for donations. I really need every bit of help that I can find to make this trip a reality.