Parents of students fundraise to support inaugural trip
Some kids enjoy sports camps, others enjoy music camps. For 17 Forest Lake area students, their camp of choice is a little different. Students from the Forest Lake Area School District, Lakes International Language Academy, North Lakes Academy, and St. Peter Catholic School, are all preparing to go to space – or the closest thing to it, at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama this May.
“A lot of them are really excited because some of them have never flown before, … but they love these science Saturdays. I feel like this allows us to tap into something in a different way than school can,” said Linwood Elementary principal Gretchen Mattson on Saturday, Jan. 27.
Space Camp and Space Academy are an annual program hosted by NASA’s U.S. Space and Rocket Center for students from across the country to train like an astronaut, construct model rockets, design martian colonies and simulate missions to the International Space Station.
But before they blast off to the week-long program, the participating students are getting a crash course in astronomy.
“This kind of builds some of that background for them,” Mattson said.
One Saturday morning each month, the students meet at the Forest Lake Area High School to learn about the galaxy, solar system and universe for their science Saturday learning session.
Although, many already know a lot about space, hence their reason for applying to participate in the program in the first place.
“It was fun today because the parents kind of gave us feedback about what they’re hearing from the kids, which is super helpful because that’ll be a true picture,” Mattson said on Saturday, Jan. 27 at the second session.
After each Saturday session, the students are given homework of some kind which entails creating a moon-base diorama or creating a board game about space.
“The kids are loving the homework, more than regular school homework, which is great,” Mattson said.
Before she began working at Linwood Elementary a few years ago, she worked at the Minneapolis Public School District where she helped bring students to Space Camp and Academy for almost a decade.
“I think what we’ve found is, over time, not a lot, but a portion of our kids that we took to Space Camp ended up going into something around that same field: space exploration,” Mattson said.
Even though Ranger Space Camp is in its inaugural year, the buy-in Mattson has seen from parents of participating students, community members and local businesses makes her hopeful the program can continue in the future.
“I just feel like we have everything that we need to make it grow. It’s just building momentum, and slowly having people jump on the bus to continue to build it,” Mattson explained.
She hopes this new venture for Forest Lake will also extend into school curricula and teach elementary courses on astronomy to pique the interest of students earlier in their education career.
“If [district leaders] find value in this program, then that means the more this program grows, the more we’ll be able to look into our schools and say, ‘What are we doing to prepare kids, build kids and get kids to be excited about this at all levels?’” Mattson said.
During the science Saturday session on Jan. 27, it’s evident that all the participating students are excited to learn and happy to be in a classroom on a Saturday.
When students return from Space Camp in May, Mattson said they hope to have each of the students share some highlights from the trip in order to continue to promote the program in the future.
Mattson said the adults can promote the program all day, “but it doesn’t have the same impact that these students will have after they’ve gone.”
Mattson thinks this year’s trip with fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh graders is a strong start to the Forest Lake program since there were still parents interested in this year’s after the application process had closed.
“I think there’s just many people that we haven’t reached, I think there’s so much growth that could grow into the middle school and the high school,” Mattson said.
NASA offers a Space Camp for students aged 9 to 11, Space Academy for students aged 12 to 14 and Advanced Space Academy for students aged 15-18, so there is an option to send older students if there is buy-in in the future.
“We absolutely have high school students that would probably be really excited to go to Advanced Space Academy,” she added.
While science Saturdays have been fun for the students to learn and explore the universe leading up to May, their parents have been simultaneously coordinating fundraising efforts to cover the total cost for the group of around $40,000.
“We all go or no one goes,” Mattson said of their mantra for fundraising for the week-long program.
Through donations from local businesses, families and community members, they narrowed down the amount still that needs to be raised for students and chaperones to attend the program to about $22,000.
“We want anyone that would want to come, be able to cover and be a part of it and apply,” Mattson said.
The parents of the participating students will host a movie-night fundraiser showing the movie “Wall-E” from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, March 22 at the Forest Lake Area Middle School. There will be seating in the bleachers and chairs, but attendees can bring blankets and pillows to sit on the floor, too. Concessions will be available for purchase with cash or check. There will be a raffle and vendor fair. Admission is free-will donation.
There is another fundraiser for an Italian dinner night at Big Apple Bagel on Friday, April 12. More information and registration can be done online at tinyurl.com/SpaceCampFundraiser0412.
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