This summer, Olivia Charles, a 12th grader at Calhoun High School, spent three weeks of her vacation on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana with VISIONS Service Adventures, an international service learning summer program.
Charles was one of 23 high school students who lived on a 1,100-acre ranch on the reservation along the Rocky Mountain front. The ranch is part of a unique partnership between the Nature Conservancy and Blackfeet Nation, and it is under conservation easement to protect its biodiversity and habitat for wildlife populations.
The teen volunteers partnered with Browning Community Development Corporation on an ambitious park project that included building a 16’ x 12’ stage using recycled materials and lumber. The stage sits 2’ off the ground and measures 11.5’ at the highest point of its pergola roof. It is a centerpiece now of the park. The high school students also built picnic tables for the park, and were invited to construct a temporary lodge for the reservation’s sacred Sun Dance ceremony.
The trip wasn’t all work for Charles and her peers, who explored Montana’s wilderness and Glacier National Park on backpacking and rock climbing expeditions. The students learned about Blackfeet Indian history firsthand from tribal elders, historians, and other community leaders. They had the chance to witness a traditional Sun Dance ceremony, go horseback riding, and attend the North American Indian Days Pow Wow in the village of Heart Butte.
“Service in the cross-cultural context allows teens the opportunity to make a difference and, just as important, know the people whose lives they are impacting in personal, mutually respectful ways,” Katherine Dayton, VISIONS Executive Director, said. “We give students tangible ways to be challenged through ambitious service work, thereby developing resilience and self-confidence, and realizing their potential in this world.”
VISIONS operates high school and middle school volunteer travel programs in Central and South America, the Caribbean West Indies, United States, Cambodia and Ghana.
“Each of our program locations is unique,” said Dayton. “But all provide primary ingredients of community service, cultural immersion, adventure and opportunities to explore places off the tourist track.”
What do you think of Charles' works this summer? Tell us in the comments below.
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