Meandering through Mini-School
By Doug Berg
We are into year 26 of Mini – School!
As most of you know, Randy and I have been involved with Mini-School since the beginning. Either because of our increasing ages or because of the fact that 25 years is a long time to be involved with anything, the years are running together for us. The program we feel is better than it has ever been. Yet it doesn’t get any easier. More paperwork, more expectations, more demands on one’s time. It’s a total commitment – more so than any other job I could imagine. But it’s worth it. It’s gratifying and it’s rewarding.
We’re off to a great start. A change from past years is that Mini-School is comprised of a pretty constant group of students. New kids are only allowed in at quarter breaks, on a space-available basis. Seventy is the maximum number of kids. I believe this change in policy has enhanced Mini-School’s “family” concept, as kids truly get to know one another. Also, the staff gets to more thoroughly know a group of kids, without being pulled away by new kids entering the program on a weekly basis.
We had a wonderful 25 year reunion at Baker park August 26th. “Kids” (some in their 40’s) from all years were there and it was great catching up on all of their lives. Many of these former students have truly become lifelong friends. Some of them are incredibly successful. Some of them are incredibly creative. All of them expressed gratitude and appreciation to Mini-School for helping them through a difficult time in their lives and enabling them to become successful. All of them expressed concern about how Mini-School is going and encouraged the current staff to keep it happening – that kids today
need it too.
A special thanks to Joanne (Storlie) Johnston, her husband Brad and all the folks on the rather large, Reunion Committee who put it together. From what I hear, the planning meetings might have been as much fun as the reunion itself. Thanks to former teachers Pete Hegrenes and Lester for making it out there. Pete had a great time reminiscing with Craig Gustafson (Arapaho) about the first ever Mini-School BWCA canoe trip.
I started off the school year by leading a great trip to Yellowstone National Park. It will be written about in detail elsewhere in this issue, but I’d like to say that I’ve had few trips in my long career where kids tried harder (it was a hard hike!), helped each other more, used better sense and judgment, and learned more. The veterans truly were leaders, the rookies followed their lead, all learned the importance of cohesiveness and solidarity. For all of us involved, there couldn’t have been a better way to start the year.
Ramona and Pauline followed the Yellowstone trip with a new trip — whitewater rafting on the St. Louis River near Jay Cooke State Park. From all reports, it too was a good, positive trip. Some of the trip members even gave a panel discussion about Mini-School to a group of students at Carlton High School.
This trip was followed by the 9th annual Mark Warren trip. Once again Mark worked his magic with the Mini-School kids along the St. Croix River. Once again twenty-two kids’ lives have been changed, even if just a little, and they have a better sense of how they fit in with the natural world.
As I write this snow is falling outside, yet fifteen kids have signed up for the 13th annual Grantsburg Backpack trip during Thanksgiving week. If our kids are hardy enough to do this trip, it’s going to be a good year. No doubt about it.
Unless we can work out some arrangement with The National Park Service, this will be the last Grantsburg Hike we can do out of my cabin. The lease expires October 31st, 1996. That gives us one more Grantsburg Hike, one more Winter Activities trip, one more summer school canoe trip, and one more Mark Warren trip. Mini-School will undoubtedly continue to offer these experiences to its students, but my quonset hut on the St. Croix has made doing them very convenient. In the future other arrangements, probably less convenient, will have to be made.
Also as I write this we are well along in our annual Mini-School Minnesota Weatherguide Calendar Drive. It only took Phil Lynott a week to break Josh Stinson’s old record of 52 calendars sold. It looks like he may go over a hundred, and many other kids are doing good work. We’ve sold about 250 calendars thus far ($1000 profit for Mini-School) and will continue the drive until about December 15th. Proceeds from this drive go to enhance the Mini-School program generally, but especially the trips program.
Even though they didn’t make it to the state tournament, Randy’s MHS soccer team enjoyed an extremely successful season. Randy was disappointed about not making it to state, but mostly he was pleased with and proud of his kids. How Randy balances coaching a major sport in the Lake Conference with working in Mini-School is beyond me. Yet year after year he does so and attains excellence both as a teacher and coach. It is good to have the soccer season over so we in Mini-School can selfishly have his professional attention all to ourselves.
Randy, Ramona, and Pauline have begun the Independent Study Program. Ramona coordinates this and teaches math, while Randy teaches social studies and Pauline science. This program provides an excellent opportunity for Mini-School kids and others to catch up on credits that they need plus spend an enjoyable, educational hour or two per week with Ramona, Randy, or Pauline.
As many of you know, Joanne, Mini-School’s paraprofessional, had a bit of a health setback in October. I am happy to report that Joanne is recovering nicely after successful surgery and should be back at Mini-School soon.
My house has gotten smaller, as my son Charles, who had been teaching in Eastern Europe the past two years moved back home. My wife, Marlene, and I traveled throughout Romania, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Austria with Charles for about six weeks. He then returned home with us and is currently working as the computer paraprofessional at Excelsior Elementary School. He’s also working part-time as reporter for the Lakeshore Weekly News. It’s good to have him home.
We almost have a Mini-School west campus in Bend, Oregon as several former Mini-Schoolers are living there and attending school at the community college there. Among them are Matt “Meatball” Richard, Zach Benway, Josh Rockstad, Simone Wintheiser, Matt Mcrady, and Lola Ulvog. It is rumored that Adrian Dolentz, who has visited extensively there, may be headed for the college, and possibly Josh “Stimpy” Stinson too, although, as we know, his interests in Bend are not entirely academic.
That about ends this Meander. Mini-School, entering its second quarter-century is doing well.