Blue Ridge Holds An Experiential Earth Day

The entire Blue Ridge School community celebrated Earth Day on Tuesday. As part of the celebration, every student and faculty member participated in an outdoor activity. One group worked the low ropes course while keeping issues such as oil, plastics, the food and water supply in mind. Another group mountain biked under the guide of two members of the Bike Factory Race team. Other groups hiked on and off campus (some barefooted with Barefoot Tim), canoed and climbed. Mrs. Eareckson and Mrs. McKowen taught a yoga class.  Several groups tested the water quality on campus with Robbi Savage of the   Rivanna Conservation Society. Robbie brought test kits she helped develop with alumni parent David LaMotte and the LaMotte Company, which makes a wide array of water and soil test kits for the environment, commercial and pool markets. The program was spearheaded by senior Daniel Desenberg, who worked with Mr. Brown and Mr. LaVoie to pull the day of activities together as an independent-study project for his Advanced Outdoor Leadership class taught by Mr. LaVoie. “Earth Day relates to me because I use the environment every single day for things I enjoy, like mountain biking,” said Daniel.

“I was surprised at how well it went. I thought all the times and number of sessions would confuse people. In the beginning, people were skeptical, but it sounded like everyone had a good time.  I heard very few complaints afterwards.  I asked the guys to go into each activity with an open mind. I think they took my words to heart. I tried to put people in activities they had not tried before. The whole point was to get people exposed to the outdoors, and hopefully after I’m gone in 28 days someone will be inspired by what we did and will take on Earth Day next year.” See more pictures.

Hometown: Anyang-Si, South Korea

Class: Sophomore

Years at BRS: Second

Why he is a Blue Ridge Baron: I toured lots of schools in Virginia, but Blue Ridge had one of the best living environments and education.  The school is harmonized with nature.  We have mountains surrounding our campus and lakes we can play on. The climate is the same as my hometown so it’s great.

Message to Prospective Students:  It’s a great opportunity to prepare to work in society. If you spend time in Blue Ridge School, you will become confident to accomplish your goals. My goal is to become a diplomat one day or work in the United Nations. At Blue Ridge School we can concentrate easily on our work. There are no distractions that you would find in the city. I plan to attend an Ivy League University.  I wanted to study abroad.  When I got here, everyone was so nice to me and they have become like my family.  I have never felt like an outsider. It’s like I have a new family here.

Activities:
Soccer
Choir
Indoor Soccer
Tennis
Diversity Club President

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