Volunteers Step Forward, Chase Summer Boredom
‘In the old days, we were too poor to be bored,” said longtime Clark Fork resident Harold Walker.
“Our parents either kept us busy or we were running up and down the mountains and in the woods. One of the big things we used to do was gather berries for the family larder.”
But times change. Television and “hanging out” have become the main summer activities for more and more young people.
Seeing the need last year for something to spice up the long summer days, Harold and Harriet Walker started a two-week day camp for kids entering the fourth, fifth and sixth grades. With the help of 17 adult volunteers, that program was so successful that this year the Walkers decided to expand and include a science camp.
This past week, students entering the seventh, eighth and ninth grades have been eating breakfast at the United Methodist Fellowship Hall in Clark Fork before heading for the hills with their sack lunches. Friends of the Walkers, Paul and Ginny Branham, teachers from Priest River, conducted the science camp and introduced budding naturalists to the geology of the Clark Fork River Valley.
During the last week in July and the first week in August, the Walkers will again host younger students at their Shadow Ranch on Spring Creek Road. They will introduce woodlore, archery (with experts Pete and Jeanne Weatherford), hiking and other outdoor activities to younger kids.
For information call 266-1437.
On the land next to the Walkers, Mark and Penny Rocha, who arrived in Clark Fork with their two daughters, Allissa and Chandra in 1990, will continue their ongoing work with teens. They serve a core of 25 teens and always have one or two troubled teens living with them. Sixty or more youth often show up for special activities.
This summer on the Rochas’ property, teens are expanding their skill-building projects by sanding down and fixing up an 18-foot wooden sailboat. But it isn’t all work. They recently returned from a three-day overnight camping trip into the magnificent mountains behind Clark Fork. Mark, an avid fly fisherman and former Alaskan guide, taught the kids fly-fishing and spin-casting. They also hiked.
“With all this beautiful country around us, there’s no reason to have boredom,” says Janet Smith, another relative newcomer to Clark Fork. Janet wants to help local teens “learn to do what all the tourists come here to do.”
To pay for plans to introduce teens to the great outdoors, Janet, along with her neighbor Trish Gannon and Kally Thurman of the Memorial Community Center in Hope, applied for and received financial assistance from the Idaho Community Foundation, Bonner County School District, and the Memorial Community Center in Hope.
Since Clark Fork lacks a community center, they built a meeting place on the vacant corner of state Highway 200 and Main Street. With buckets of paint, metal frames and an imaginative use of plastic lumber wrap from Louisiana Pacific, volunteers created a “Coffee House” where many activities are planned, including daily breakfasts and lunches and an ice cream parlor. Barbecues, featured speakers, oral histories and an open mike will entice people of all ages to a central fire pit every Saturday night at 6:30.
Because one of the big complaints of teens in Clark Fork is the lack of opportunities to earn money, Janet and her committee have made arrangements to pay them a stipend to help with activities for younger students.
Children under 12 are encouraged to gather daily between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. in the park in Clark Fork for sports, arts and crafts, and bike riding. Children under 6 are welcome with a parent.
, DataTimes MEMO: For more information about these and related activities in Hope, call the center between 10 a.m. and noon daily, at (208) 264-5481.