BRANDON, Vt. (WCAX) – A unique tradition continues this weekend at Otter Valley Union High School with a raft race that rounds out homecoming. The new program at the school is also tying the event’s build up into the curriculum.
“Kind of just came up as part of classwork and the teacher thought its something we should try so we all just started to try and work on it,” Brendan Martelle said.
One man’s trash has become another’s potential flotation device. Otter Valley students in the Foothills Alternative Education Credit Recovery Program, have been creating a raft for the final part of the homecoming week.
Students in the program and multiple other teams have spent weeks designing, crafting, and building rafts and oars from random recycled materials. The hope is to keep them afloat.
“You get to take something that was considered trash and turn it into something that is very usable and for a different purpose,” Marshall LaRouche said.
Students said they still need to get the raft to the river off Route 79 on Sunday, where it will be fully built just before entering the water. The entire process is one big learning experience for the 14 students in the program.
It incorporates science, art team building for the students to work together,” Nicole Vaschon-Hanlon, a teacher in the program said. “Some of these students have not really enjoyed being at school. They’ve avoided, had attendance issues, and challenges, and this is a way that is hands on.”
Vaschon-Hanlon says for some students, it paves a way for them to find a potential interest for the next chapter in life.
“Any kid wants to do something that they enjoy, so yeah knowing he likes to do woodworking and likes to do engineering and things with his hands,” Vaschon-Hanlon said.
“I like hands on work like working with wood framing mechanics stuff like that,” Martelle said. “It gets me to build more stuff so I like that fact of it.”
The rafts and racers will splash into Otter Creek this Sunday at 11:00 a.m.