Students from the Washington State School for the Blind spent a day on the slopes of Mount St. Helens with the Mount St. Helens Trac Riders Snowmobile club.
Mount St. Helens with the Mount St. Helens Trac Riders Snowmobile club.
Students from the Washington State School for the Blind spent a day on the slopes of Mount St. Helens with the Mount St. Helens Trac Riders Snowmobile club.
When a fleet of snowmobiles went zooming over the trails of Mount St. Helens on a recent winter day, two dozen kids joined the chorus of engines with squeals and laughter. Many of the children couldn’t see the trees and slopes surrounding them, but they could feel the jolt of speed and hear the roar of the machines.
“They just really have a need for speed. They love it. They love to go fast,” said Adrienne Fernandez, recreation and volunteer coordinator at the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver. “Many of them would never be able to operate a snowmobile on their own. The ability to go out and experience the power of the machine, Mother Nature, to do it with their peers — it’s very powerful.”
Fernandez’s students, blind and visually impaired kids from all over the state, met up with the Mount St. Helens Trac Riders club on Feb. 28 for a day on the trails. The riders were eager to share their favorite pastime.
“It was fantastic to be able to host it and see all the kids and the looks on their faces,” said Larry Lamkin, the club’s president. “A lot of (riders) said, ‘We’ll never miss this again.’”
The ride with blind students had been a long tradition for the club until the warming shelter at the Marble Mountain Sno-Park burned down in 2011. After years of fundraising and frustration, the club finally got the shelter rebuilt last year, making it possible to bring the event back.
One member approached Lamkin after the ride, with 20-plus students, 30-plus club members, and U.S. Forest Service employees mingling in the shelter, sharing a meal and having fun.
“He grabs me and says, ‘Hey Larry, all the heartache and trouble we went through to get this building, it just paid off,’” Lamkin said. “We’re absolutely going to make it an annual thing.”
For the Forest Service, the event was a chance to celebrate the new shelter and welcome a new group of people to the outdoors.
“Everyone came back with smiles on their faces,” said Chelsea Muise, recreation program manager for the Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument. “Many snowball fights happened after that. … We are always really excited to see groups like the School for the Blind. They do so many things that these kids might not have had the chance to experience otherwise. It gives them better appreciation for the land and more exploration power to see what they can do on their own.”
While the students can’t see like their peers, their other senses are keen, and they marveled at the silence of the backcountry when the riders shut the engines off. Of course, they also wanted to put the throttle down.
“They wanted to know, ‘Can we go faster, can we go faster?’” said club member Mike Ainslie.
The kids were given the opportunity to grasp the handlebars and operate the sleds — guided closely by the riders, of course. The snowmobile rides weren’t just a chance for the kids to have fun, but an opportunity to open their worlds, Fernandez said.
“Recreation is a conduit for them to be able to relate to their sighted peers,” she said. “It allows them to gain insight and concepts and be able to relate to the world and understand. Our students learn by experiencing. It was absolutely an amazing day.”
Everyone involved — the Trac Riders, the school and the Forest Service — credited the others with making the event a success. Volunteers made sure each kid would be able to get a ride, the Forest Service helped get the shelter prepared and others made sure there was plenty to eat.
“The look on those kids’ faces and to listen to them talk, everybody there said it was worth taking the day off work,” Ainslie said.
The Forest Service is also hoping to keep the event going year after year, and it credits the work of the Trac Riders to get the shelter rebuilt — allowing the agency to host this and many other events.
“It opens up so many opportunities for all our user groups,” said Muise. “Those who might not be comfortable going out into the snow without a place to warm up — we’re really happy to see people coming out and enjoying it.”
