By Erin Cathcart

We live in trying times; economically, socially, educationally and environmentally. In an age where our culture is being bombarded by change, it becomes difficult to choose a specific resource to devote our precious time and attention to. I write today to implore the people of this beautiful city to take a moment to consider the Multnomah Education Service District's Outdoor School program.

Outdoor School was started in 1966 and has since become one of the nation's longest-running and most successful environmental education programs. Every spring and fall, sixth-grade classes are brought out for six days at one of five residential camps located around Portland. High school volunteers "lead" cabins and teach activities under the guidance of a small but highly trained and dedicated group of staffers. Each day, students learn about a different aspect of natural resources: water, wildlife, botany and soil science. They work together to learn and maintain their community, and the impact of Outdoor School is carried well beyond the boundaries of each site.

Ask any longtime Portland resident about his or her experience as a sixth-grader in a metro-area school, and there is an excellent chance that he will say "Outdoor School."

Some might speak to the friends they made, some might reminisce about campfire songs and rainy afternoons spent exploring a forest or river, some might just have a cloudy memory of a small wooden nametag that has since been buried in a closet along with old schoolwork and childhood art projects. For many, the real impact of their Outdoor School experience is harder to put to words. You may be answered with a smile and the simple statement, "It was the best week I ever had."

We cannot let these memories be packed away in closets, and we cannot let the communities that are built each week at Outdoor School become forgotten artifacts of days gone by. Outdoor School is an environmental education program, yes, but it has become so much more in the 45 years since its birth. It is about bringing people from different backgrounds together; it is about learning to respect one another as members of the same community; it is about taking the lessons learned from the natural world and applying them to our own society.

These are the values that make the Outdoor School program what it is today: a place to build healthy, collaborative communities where individuals can realize their potential in a safe and welcoming environment.

As staff members, we advocate critical thinking and personal growth. We take high-school volunteers and show them how to be positive, successful leaders. We empower youth to take charge in difficult situations and speak out for what they believe to be right while considering the needs of others as equal to their own. We are often rewarded by little more than a few tearful goodbyes at the end of the week as we watch students disappear from our lives forever.

But session after session, sixth-grade teachers return with stories about how their students went back to school and carried on these values in class and at home. They talk about individuals who never had a vested interest in school blossom into people who care about expanding their horizons and learning something new about themselves and the world around them every day.

This is real, this is powerful and this is dying. Outdoor School needs your help.

Don't do it because of this column, don't do it because of the countless lives it has impacted over the years, don't even do it because you loved Outdoor School in sixth grade. Do it because you care about carrying on a tradition that has been part of the Portland community for generations. Do it because it is an integral part of what makes our home great. Do it because we need programs like this to keep our city strong, green and lovably weird.

Reach out to those you know who may have let their Outdoor School memories fade into the mist of adolescence. Get involved with support programs. Talk to your school board members. Let them know that you care about your future and the future of those who are still to come. Help us save this small piece of Portland culture so that thousands more can reap the benefits for years to come.

Erin Cathcart lives in Northeast Portland and is a field instructor at the Sandy River Outdoor School site. To contact Friends of Outdoor School, go to passonthememory.org or call 503-257-1774.