Unitarian Youth Group Awed By Alaska

Final August, as this space slowly emerged from COVID, Nate Pawelek had an concept.

The Westport United Church youth chief noticed how deeply isolation, loneliness and hopelessness had affected youngsters. He wished to ignite and encourage the church’s highschool group.

How a couple of journey to Alaska?

Church leaders had been skeptical, however supportive. Rev John Morehouse warned in opposition to going simply to sightsee. He wished a studying part too.

As a result of local weather change is a big Unitarian Universalist concern — a key precept is respecting the interdependent net of all existence — Pawelek determined to concentrate on the surroundings.

Working carefully with intern minister Kim Warman and lots of mother and father, he designed an intensive environmental curriculum.

In September, a dozen teenagers started investigating their very own church campus, guided by an arborist from the congregation.

Youth group members discovered in regards to the surroundings — starting at their very own church.

They discovered how human conduct impacts the earth in unseen methods. The group found an oak tree with a motion-detection digicam sure to its trunk by a metal wire. Because the tree grew it turned embedded, constricting water and vitamins from roots to leaves. The group minimize the wire, saving the tree.

At Sunday morning conferences, visitor audio system shared their  work. Pippa Bell Ader described meals waste. Noting that food-insecure folks do not need the luxurious of throwing away completely good meals, she urged composting and donating unused meals.

Misha Golfman, founding father of the New Hampshire wilderness expedition college Kroka, instructed the kids to keep away from quinoa. A staple for Ecuadoreans and different South Individuals, a lot of it’s now diverted to the US.

Golfman and Kroka created a New Hampshire program in February. It was “mini-basic coaching” to organize for Alaska. The group discovered to reside outdoors within the chilly, construct fires with out matches, prepare dinner within the snow and dehydrate meals, with out working water and electrical energy. A number of group members participated in a polar plunge in a frozen pond on the ultimate day.

In February the youth group started finding out environmental justice. They seen a sample of upper impression from local weather change on low-income communities, folks of coloration, and indigenous teams. Subjects included the Flint water disaster, and the Eklutna Dam in Anchorage (it decimated the salmon inhabitants eliminating an important meals supply for the Dena’ina group).

On the similar time, the kids raised cash for his or her journey. They did odd jobs, collected and redeemed hundreds of bottles and cans, raked lawns, bought vacation wreaths, sponsored a raffle to win a wire of wooden, and carried out a profit live performance.

Quickly, that they had $17,000.

Gathering in Westport, earlier than heading west.

The 11 youth group members and 5 chaperones headed west in the course of the faculties’ spring break. Immediately, they had been awed by the rugged panorama.

Alaska “reminds us that nature has the ability to revive us in instances of despair and despondency,” Pawelek says. “That is what I envisioned. It was a present of hope for the youth.”

Residing in Alaska for per week — largely off the grid — “elevated their consciousness of the innumerable methods human exercise, even in our personal houses, impacts the well being and sustainability of the Earth,” he provides.

The group traveled with a suitcase filled with dehydrated meals, and 16 tenting bowls, mugs and spoons to eat with.

Every teenager introduced simply 2 adjustments of garments and no facilities — aside from telephones (helpful primarily as cameras, attributable to restricted cell service).

They generated little trash, refilled their water bottles each likelihood that they had, and — after spending 3 hours making tasty pancakes with rehydrated blueberries — relished the meal.

The Unitarian youth group branches out.

In Alaska the group labored with the natural gardening group Yarducopia, and canvassed neighborhoods to ask folks to hitch. They met with representatives from Trout Limitless and the Alaska Conservation Fund, who took them to the Eklutna River (and dam).

In Seward, a park ranger confirmed them the proof of flooding and seashore erosion from melting ice caps and glaciers. In Homer they surveyed tide swimming pools and studied plankton beneath microscopes, to study the impact of warming oceans.

Additionally they attended a Unitarian Easter service; helped construct a retaining wall to forestall erosion, and had dinner with leaders of the Qutekcak native tribe.

Stunning climate enabled clear views of the beautiful Chugach Mountains and the Alaska Vary, together with 20,000-foot tall Denali.

Beautiful views in Alaska.

They performed — sledding down a 100-foot embankment like penguins — and although there was nonetheless a variety of work to do establishing camp, the impulsive playtime honored their souls.

Pawelek is aware of the argument that an environmental journey like that is unwise, attributable to carbon emissions. “We consider the advantages of our consciousness offsets the emissions,” he says.

Again in Connecticut, they’re displaying off their photographs. They’re telling household and associates in regards to the sights they noticed, the teachings they discovered — and pondering laborious about what the long run holds.

(Youth group member Zach Pawelek created the video beneath.)