WTB Enjoy a Guest Speaker

Randy Koster

DSS Press

Dunnville

This year's Wilderness Trail Blazers group has been learning a great deal with many hands-on trips and guest speakers. On Wednesday, March 28^th, 2012, Andy Tonkin, owner of Brantford’s Treks In The Wild, an outdoor adventure company that is passionate about experiencing nature, visited Dunnville Secondary School (DSS) with a presentation on survival skills, search and rescue, and wild edible plants. After the in-class presentation, Tonkin took the students outside and showed them a variety of different wild edible plants.

Mark McCormack, teacher of the Wilderness Trail Blazers group, stated, “It’s a different kind of speaker. The students are more hands-on and it’s a more interesting and more memorable way for the students to learn.” McCormack has been teaching the Wilderness Trail Blazers class for seven years. He is pleased with the group this year and their excellence in the classroom.

When speaking with Josh Fester, a Wilderness Trail Blazer student, he explained, “Wilderness Trail Blazers is a great course with some fun adventures and an unreal teacher.” He later added, “When Andy came in and we went on the hike it was cool to see what sorts of plants were found in just a regular field and to know which ones are actually edible.”

The group has many upcoming trips and events including the Earth Day elementary teaching day and the hiking trip, which will be held in early May on the Bruce Trail. The group looks forward to the rest of the semester.