Students from Whitefish Independent High School took a break from their studies and hit the trail one day at the end of October.

About 22 students grabbed shovels, rakes and other tools to work on the Trail Runs Through It project north of Whitefish.

The trail will traverse forested state, federal and private lands around Spencer Lake, Skyles Lake, Lion Mountain, Beaver Lake, Stillwater Creek and Swift Creek, according to the project's Web site. Eventually it will loop dozens of miles around Whitefish Lake.

Karen Cordi, an aide at the independent high school, saw a newspaper article about the trail earlier in the month. The project needed volunteers and the school needed volunteer opportunities, Cordi said.

"The teachers at the independent high school thought, 'What a great project,'" she said. "We're always looking for projects we can help out on, and this is a great project to get in on."

Whitefish Independent High School students have been working to build community awareness, English teacher Beth Beaulieu said. The trail project was an opportunity to further that awareness.

"One of the main goals at our school is to make community connections to build citizenship, and our students are always coming up with great ideas for doing that," Beaulieu said.

To get to the trail, Kevin Decker, who normally shuttles the independent high school students on field trips, volunteered his time and school bus, a gesture students and staff greatly appreciated, Cordi said.

When they reached the trail, the students were directed by Trail Runs Through It project coordinator Dave Noftsinger, who co-owns Reforestation Inc. in Whitefish.

Noftsinger passed out tools and hard hats and put the teenagers to work trimming branches and roots, raking and shoveling the slope, digging trenches for water control and spreading grass seed.

They worked all morning before breaking for lunch on a hilltop overlooking Skyles Lake, then continued their labor in the afternoon.

Their work benefited the trail project, which relies heavily on volunteer work, but it also benefited the school, Beaulieu said.

"The day gave us the opportunity to talk to each other and get to know one another better, all in [the] process of doing a worthwhile community project," she said.

The students already are talking about how they'll use the trail in the future, she added.

Their work also prompted students to think about other ways they might serve the community, Beaulieu said. She quoted student Merrilee Thomas as saying, "The next thing we should do is work for the soup kitchen for the homeless."

Working on the trail was a good fit for high school students, Cordi said.

"They're a bunch of kids with lots of energy. Let's harness that energy into something," she said.

On the Net:

www.trailrunsthroughit.org