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STORY BY BURKE SPEAKER
It was time to fish. When the announcement was made, throngs of boys and girls came running. A group tossed aside
"Frank! Can I get a pole?"
"Can I get a pole, Frank?" "How do you do this?" "Frank!" Fishing instructor Frank Reed smiled as he patiently distributed the miniature fishing poles. This wasn't the first time he'd taught hordes of 10- to 12-year-old children how to fish, and it wouldn't be the last. One of five counselors, Reed oversaw the fishing portion of Under Illinois Skies, a second-year summer program providing 140 urban youth a unique perspective on the outdoors. This one would be without the skyscrapers, pollution and rush-hour traffic.
May 2001 15
Day 1: Today we went fishing,
boating and walking. I had the
best time of my life.
Instead, this outdoor experience entails canoeing, swimming, night hikes, creature identification, prairie safaris, camping and listening to and watching wildlife. The Department of Natural Resources, in partnership with the Chicago Park District, provided five weeks of three-day programs at Rock Cut State Park. At the time of this writing, it was the third week for the program, though the first day for this batch of Chicago youths. And they're ready to fish.
"Now watch," said Reed, demonstrating the correct way to put a wax worm on the hook. There was silence for a brief moment as 24 pairs of curious eyes watched until he had finished. "I don't want anyone saying you don't know how to put bait on the hook. Now who's gonna catch the first fish?"
A few of the youths gathered around a red, weather-beaten picnic table to plot fishing strategies and bait their hooks. One problem. Several had forgotten Reed's instructions.
"Whoa, this thing is juicy," noted 11-year-old Adrian Grosvenor, as he accidently sliced the wax worm in half while trying to secure the squirming creature on the hook. "Somebody hook it, I'm gonna get stuck." "Here, you want me to do it for you?" asked Alana Varona, a sensible 12-year-old who obviously heeded Reed's instruction. In a few moments, Varona was baiting poles for several of her peers—and enjoying every moment of it. "It's good to get away from home, away from the city," Varona said, calmly slipping the worms onto each hook with ease. "There's no city noise here at all. Sometimes in the city it's too noisy, and I can't sleep.
Alongside the lake bank, Elyse Strandberg had already tired of catch-and-release fishing and was now in a casting match with another girl to see who could send their bobbers out the farthest. After winning, she turned her attention to teasing 9-year-old Brandon Sargent, who came ambling up toward the shoreline, watching his pole's hook dangle back and forth with comical suspicion.
"Watch out! I'm going to hook you," Strandberg threatened, laughing. "Don't," Sargent warned, looking somewhat forlorn. "I got hooked already."
"By who?" Strandberg asked.
Sargent sighed, and frowned before he spoke. "By myself."
After several fish hook incidents and one proud first-catch winner later, it was suppertime. Each youth mixed a hamburger patty with onions, carrots and seasoning. Then they enlisted the help of a counselor to cook the foil-covered burgers over a fire. Nine-year-old Dana Davidson recanted her tale of catching the day's first fish as the group eagerly awaited their meals, which, to the surprise of many, were taking longer than ordering at McDonald's or Hardees.
As night blanketed the campsite, a few of the girls decided that, while being outdoors meant relinquishing the luxury of television, radio and the Internet, there was no way they would overlook glamour. Eleven-year-old Briana Teal and 12-year-old Kathrina Villa delicately painted blue nail polish across their fingers as other children played nearby.
"They didn't say we couldn't bring it," Teal said, defiantly applying a second coat. 16 OutdoorIllinois
The group gathered around warming flames while the fire crackled and sparked. Overhead, stars were emerging. Several of the children gawked upward in awe, realizing Chicago's city lights rarely allow for nighttime star gazing. Soon, idle chatter gave way to ghost stories. Jonathan Marin recited Edgar Allan Poe's House of Usher, an admirable feat for a young boy, as anyone who's ever read the story would agree.
When story time ended, the weary adventurers lumbered to their tents and later called out a "Waltons" goodnight to each other before falling into an exhaustive sleep.
Day 2: Did the cooking, then we
learned about the wildlife and
played games. We also went on a
night hike through the woods!
In the early morning, the smell of sausage and scrambled eggs greeted the olfactory nerves of each youngster, leading them in Pied Piper fashion to the meal area. The breakfast chefs—Michael Teal, Paul St. James and Harif Abina— conjured up the meal while their friends stood around them like starving wolves near a herd of plump sheep.
"We need some garlic, parsley and cheese and then I'd really hook this thing up," Teal said emphatically to St. James, who just shrugged and moved about his work.
Nearby stood Abina, a first-time cook, flipping the sausages as children meandered up to him for their meal.
"This is pretty cool," he concluded. "I'd never be doing this back home."
Marin, the previous night's Poe reciter, snagged a plate of eggs, sausage and glass of milk before ambling over to a picnic table overlooking the lake. "I like the fishing here, and I like the clean air," he mused. "There's not a lot of clean air in the city, just cars. Lots of cars. Too many cars, loud music, and everywhere you go you can hear the train. Out here it's just better scenery. And a better breakfast."
After breakfast the campers broke into two groups. One went on a prairie safari with Illinois Beach State Park Naturalist Bill Wengeleski, and the other headed to the lake to learn about aquatic insects from Volo Bog Naturalist Stacy Miller.
Undoubtably, the highlight of the aquatic insect identification section was the discovery of a bryozoan, a unification of numerous single-celled animal lumped together to resemble a Jello-molded brain.
"It's crucial that the kids learn about things like this," Miller said. "Because if kids don't know what is out there, they can't understand it, and if they can't understand it, they can't care about it, and if they don't care about it, then they won't feel the need to protect their environment."
Counselor Reed acknowledged this assessment and said that transporting the children from the city to the woodlands changes their outlook on nature.
May 2001 17
"Out here, they're learning about the beauty of the land and how to respect the land," said Reed, who also teaches language arts at the Field Elementary School in Chicago. "They learn to have a good time without having to be in the city." Later, the group traveled a few miles to the park's prairie, where Wengeleski led them on a prairie safari. The safari entailed capturing numerous prairie bugs and insects to be identified in a game that pitted two groups against each other. After dispensing sweep nets, Wengeleski let them scour the tall prairie grasses, scooping up what they hoped would be some of the 20 listed critters to find. Twelve-year-old Muhamed Metovic, thrilled at the opportunity to Indiana Jones his way into infamy, swung his net wildly through the spiky grass, swooping up several types of bugs and insects before the net broke under the strain. "These kids are obviously having a good time outdoors," Wengeleski said while helping a girl identify the
Both groups found 19 of the 20 bugs and were rewarded with another lake swim. They returned ravenous. But in an almost laughable incident—almost because the counselors didn't think the matter was too funny—cooking the fish took much longer than expected. The oil's heat was nearly used up, doubling the cooking time. It was a lesson that in the outdoors, not everything comes ready-made and pre-packaged, all wrapped and ready to go. Still, child after child called out to park intern Ben Hartman, asking if the fish was ready.
"No, not yet," Hartman responded, smiling wearily each of the more than 20 times he repeated himself. Still, though there were problems, few compared to the hectic schedule, chock-full of activities. Not that the children noticed.
"Man, we should have cooked the fish," one girl said to her friend. "I think we'd have got it cooked by now"
Everyone was ultimately fed, and darkness soon fell. And after bug spray was applied ("I hope I don't explode next to the fire," one boy remarked after an intense spraying), the group took a night hike. Along the way, they listened for the sounds of nature and bumped into each other more than bumbling wind-up toys. The night was calm and the mood serene, broken only when a vivacious dog howled a warning at the nearly blind children, who scrambled away screaming in delirious fright.
Day 3: We're going to go boating
on a big ship, eat lunch and go
home. P.S. I'm sad because I don't
want to go home.
"You're all going to become voyagers," DNR's Mitch Ingold told the youngsters who boarded a 34-foot-long voyager canoe as the early morning sun beat down.
Ingold, the site interpretive program manager, paddled at the stem while he told tales of how early Europeans used the vessels for exploration. "Let's see how fast we can get this baby going," Ingold commanded. The group paddled on furiously, and the canoe lurched forward at a hearty 2 miles per hour. 18 OutdoorIllinois
The paddling had to be synchronized, but it took awhile for the children to stop smacking their paddies into one another. Ingold explained to the newly anointed that former voyager travelers paddled at least 14 to 16 hours per day, a time that everyone agreed they wouldn't have been able to do, as after 20 minutes many began to tire.
After they got back to the campsite, there was one last group project to undertake—building a fire pit as a service project for the park. While most of the counselors did the majority of the work, the children did their best to help out, and finally the task was complete.
When the children boarded the bus to leave, each left with a complimentary backpack, water bottle, flashlight and packet of information on Illinois wildlife. They also left with a greater appreciation for the outdoors and memories that will last them through noisy days and nights in Chicago. All this was thanks to the Chicago Park District counselors, DNR and the generous support of the Illinois Conservation Foundation. Hartman said Under Illinois Skies is a special experience for urban youth who haven't had the opportunity to spend much time outdoors. Out here, the children can enhance their recreational skills, outdoor learning and respect for the environment and at the same time discover what lies past the skyscrapers and seemingly endless freeways. "Their understanding of Illinois is mostly of just the city," Hartman said. "Some of the kids that come to this don't have any concept of what's beyond Chicago. This lets them know that there's so much more to the state than just the city."
May 2001 19 |
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