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CAMP COW

DEIRDRE FLEMING

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Doug Jones/staff photographer: Friday, April 11, 2008: From left: Sam Anderson- Patenaude, Raymond Burke, Maria Lundberg, Maggie Eismeier, Evan Chandler, and Zoe Swaffer, Casco Bay High Schoolers move to the northern side of Cow Island for a teamwork exercise in problem solving. Cow Island's Ripple Effect hosted Casco Bay High group for an outdoor experience.

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Doug Jones/staff photographer: Friday, April 11, 2008: Ripple Effect staff and guests all pitch in to help offload supplies at the beach on the Eastern tip of Cow Island where Ripple Effect hosted a Casco Bay High School group for an outdoor experience.

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Staff Writer

COW ISLAND — Zoe High had only camped once before. So sleeping in a century-old army bunker beside the ocean, literally imbedded in the history she was studying on a tiny island in Casco Bay, was a strange experience.

Yet a day after landing on Cow Island with 18 other students from Portland's Casco Bay High School -- most of whom she didn't know -- the strangeness of camping on an uninhabited island wasn't what surprised the sophomore.

It was the way the students bonded.

''I think for some, this is a challenge. It's not what they're used to. Because it's a new environment, they have to look to others for support,'' High said.

If Casco Bay High's trip is any indication, the business of camping and cleaning a small, wild island is a sure way to get 19 teenagers who don't normally talk to look suspiciously like friends.

''I think there is a lot of tension between the sophomores and the freshmen,'' High said of the underclassmen, who make up the bulk of the 3-year-old school. ''It's good to get to know (the freshmen) in a different environment. It's easy to connect, because we have to work together. I've talked to people I wouldn't normally talk to.''

Casco Bay High's lesson plans are rooted in experiential learning -- the school requires a week of intensive learning through activities outside the classroom.

The projects are required to help students work together and learn in new ways, whether producing a show for a radio station, living aboard a schooner or camping on a wild, uninhabited island.

The trip to Cow Island was a natural, given that the group that owns it, Rippleffect, has the mission of promoting youth development through outdoor adventures.

But after their first day together, what the students said they learned had nothing to do with the 107-year-old fort that they slept in. Nor was it the fort's place in history, or Rippleffect's lessons in conservation.

The revelation shared by most was the way this tiny island bound them into a community distinguished by jokes and laughter.

Through outdoors programs, Rippleffect teaches lessons aimed at building self-esteem and confidence. But even without these exercises, there is a feeling of empowerment on Cow Island. Remnants of history dot the island's coast alongside small wooden cabins run by solar power.

In 1907, the bunker at Fort Lyons was built in preparation for a Spanish flotilla that never came. Decades later, the fort was again occupied by U.S. troops. Cow, Great Diamond, Peaks, House and Long islands were all surrounded by ships coming to refuel during World War II.

The cement structures that rise out of the island's gentle slopes make an inviting place for a pack of teenagers. Much of the fort is still intact. ''All but one of the fireplaces in the bunkers work,'' said Rippleffect island manager Chris Mills.

But Cow Island is also a wild place with overgrown bittersweet vines climbing and spreading among the trees. And the Rippleffect guides are mindful of the need to preserve the island's soil from eroding, to cut back the non-native plants and to impact the island as little as possible. There are messages about conservation and the island's sensitive ecosystem in most lessons.

Through chores, students learned how to maintain composting toilets and how to minimize the impact of non-native plants.

''Bittersweet can grow 20 feet in a year. It is incredibly tenacious,'' Mills told them.

It was in this setting that Jen Grover, a Casco Bay humanities teacher, watched students pull up bittersweet roots and carry lumber for a new composting outhouse, and do so without complaining. Some even turned the chores into games, competing with the roots that wouldn't budge.

Grover said that enthusiasm wouldn't flow as easily in a classroom full of desks.

''They've got to be present, awake and aware when they're here,'' Grover said. ''I looked to see which kids would sign up for this. Those who did, I wouldn't think it was in their comfort zone. I think a lot of kids stretch.''

In fact, the inherent challenge was why some students came.

''I did it because I thought it was something different, and I don't usually do stuff like this,'' High said.

Others, like sophomore Connor Murphy, said they chose the trip by default but found it was more fun than expected.

''I didn't want to do the 'School of Rock,' '' Murphy said of a program that required students to write music.

Sophomore Maria Lundberg helped explain the communal approach.

''We know we're all stuck together. We might as well make the best of it,'' she said.

Nonetheless, to a stranger, the group of 19 freshman and sophomores seemed like a high school basketball team.

One moment they were dashing toward counselor Scott Shibles to share a box of Girl Scout cookies. Another minute, the rambunctious teenagers were quietly forming a line at Shibles' request.

''Who'd have thought you'd ever see that?'' asked wellness teacher Joanne Petkus. ''Nineteen kids lining up for soup. No chips, no snack. It's something nutritious.''

Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming can be contacted at 791-6452 or at:

dfleming@pressherald.com