New Year, New Programs!

by Ariella Rogge on January 26

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Happy New Year! Our first ever Sanborn Gap Semester program has begun! Ten college-aged students have joined us and are just finishing their Wilderness First Responder Course, taught by instructors from NOLS and the Wilderness Medicine Institute. This is an important certification for outdoor leaders. They soon will be heading to a warmer climate for a week-long backpacking trip. Later in the program, they will learn everything they ever wanted to know about backcountry skiing, mountain bike riding, and technical rock climbing. Our COEC leaders, Sarah and Mike Adler, have been working on this program for months and we are all very excited to have it underway.

In addition, we have welcomed 48 college students from A Place Beyond. This program is targeted for college students who are taking on-line classes through their own universities, and are eager to be part of a safe, peer community. As you know, many institutions of higher learning have gone to virtual classes during COVID-19 or have had very disrupted schedules based on campus outbreaks, leaving students without the opportunity to socialize which is such an important part of college life. A Place Beyond recognized this need and we are happy to partner with them in providing this worthwhile program.

And we have learned a lot! About testing, cohorts, medical protocols and much more. All of this gives us the confidence to know that we can operate camp safely in 2021. We can’t wait to again welcome campers and staff to High Trails and Big Spring in June. Camp may look a little different than it did in 2019, but we are ready to provide the outdoor adventure and happy, fun community which many children need so desperately in today’s world.

In partnership with the schools which normally attend our High Trails Outdoor Education program in the spring, we have regretfully cancelled this program for the spring season of 2021. However, we are hopeful that we will again be able to resume our outdoor education programs next fall.

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sanborn gap semestera place beyondSanborn Western Camps
Ariella Rogge
About Ariella Rogge

Ariella started her career at Sanborn when she was twelve. After five years of camper and five years of Sanborn staff experience, she continued her work with kids in the high school classroom. Ariella and her family returned to Sanborn in 2001 to take on the Program Director role which she held til 2012. She and Elizabeth Marable became co-directors of High Trails in 2013 and then Ariella became the High Trails Director in 2020. In the fall of 2022 she became the Director of Sanborn Western Camps, overseeing the director teams of both Big Spring and High Trails. She lists mountain golf, Gymkhana, climbing mountains and making Pad Thai in the backcountry as some of her favorite activities at camp. Ariella received a B.A. in English from Colorado College and is a certified secondary English educator,an ACCT Level 2 Ropes Course Technician, an ARC lifeguard and NREMT and WEMT. She lives in Florissant in the summer and in Green Mountain Falls during the school year so she can stay involved with the busy lives of her husband, Matt, and two teenage sons, Lairden and Karsten.