Adventurous learning

For most of us, a typical vacation does not include sleeping on the floor of a preschool classroom, digging fence-post holes or washing stacks of dishes. Yet two groups of students and alumni had the chance to do all this — and more — during a summer week of labor, laughter and learning spent volunteering on the Blackfeet Reservation in the far northwestern corner of Montana.

The reservation is spectacular: grand vistas of peaks and prairie where the Great Plains collide with the Continental Divide. The panorama, below, captures a section of Glacier National Park, which can be seen from the reservation. Tourists stream through the reservation en route to Glacier, but few stop in Browning, population 1,065, or any of the other settlements on the reservation. Meanwhile, the Blackfeet remain mired in rural poverty.

Clearly, the volunteers on this trip, called the Service and Learning Adventure, could not solve problems in a week. The goals for the 22 alumni, 11 students, and handful of faculty and staff were modest: make connections, and return home with opened eyes and open hearts. SALA was initiated this year through a partnership among the Wisconsin Alumni Association, University Communications, the Wisconsin Union, the Morgridge Center for Public Service and the Office of the Chancellor.

Jennifer Cinelli (right) recruited local kids to decorate boulders at Head Start.

Sally McBeath (left) and Peggy Williams (right) painted the halls of the Tribal nursing home.

After work, volunteers met with local officials and visited sites such as Tipi Village, an encampment modeled on the traditional tipi circle.

The group learned about the Blackfeet and set personal goals, as alumna Carol Spoehr did during a training exercise.

On a Head Start playground, Cana Tinkle and Steven Hall dug trenches for a deck foundation.

By the end of the week, when a group went hiking at Divide Mountain, they functioned as a team, helping each other to the summit.

SALA will return to Browning next year and will also send a team to Beards Fork, W. Va. Information: (888) 922-8728, or visit http://www.walumni.com/travel.

Text and photos: Michael Forster Rothbart