For Monique Cotton, the high point of a recent trip to Glacier National Park was the hike to Avalanche Lake.

Cotton accompanied a group of 11 youths from a children’s home in Spokane on a five-day trip to the park last week. The children from Hutton Settlement Children’s Home were hosted by the Glacier Institute and filmed for a feature that will air Friday on the “Today” show.

But the highlight of the trip wasn’t the chance to appear on television or meet “Today” show correspondent Jenna Bush Hager. According to Cotton, the home’s director of community relations and communication, the best moment was when the children saw Avalanche Lake nestled at the base of a towering cirque.

“Just to see their faces when they saw that, I’ve never seen anything like that before,” she said. “That was probably the most special piece [of the trip], to show them something outside their comfort zone that they hadn’t seen before.”

Hutton Settlement provides a long-term home for children ages 5 to 18 who need a safe place to live, Cotton said. Residents come from all kinds of backgrounds, including failed adoptions, homes with substance abuse or the loss of parents.

With Hutton’s limited budget as a nonprofit, lengthy trips to places like Glacier Park are rare, she said.

Hutton Settlement had only hoped to spend a day in the park with the Glacier Institute. But when the home contacted the Kalispell nonprofit, Cotton learned that there was an extended opening.

The Glacier Institute had received a $5,000 grant from the Whitehouse Post, a film and video editing facility with offices in London, New York, Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif. The money allowed the institute to sponsor a weeklong outdoor education camp for children who might not otherwise have the opportunity to spend time in a place like Glacier Park, said Joyce Baltz, the institute’s executive director.

“The more we talked, the more we realized this was a perfect fit,” Cotton said. “The children could come experience the beauty of Glacier and learn about how to preserve the environment, how to make a difference, an impact. It really all fell into place.”

Hosting the Spokane youths turned out to be serendipitous for a national television crew as well.

The “Today” show had contacted the Glacier Institute about filming in the park for a feature, “America the Beautiful: America’s National Parks.” The institute was chosen because of its reputation for working with young people, according to a press release from Baltz.

When the television crew found out about the group from Spokane, it decided the story would be perfect for the “America the Beautiful” feature, Baltz said. The NBC team accompanied the group on the hike to Avalanche Lake and Hager (the daughter of former president George W. Bush) interviewed the children.

“It was incredibly touching,” Baltz said.

“Some girls talked about how [the trip] really opened their eyes to what’s out there. They’re not going to give up. These kids really have a lot going for them, even though they’ve been dealt a pretty tough hand.”

The children, whose ages ranged from 10 to 17 and who are members of Hutton Settlement’s leadership group, participated in several other activities during their stay at the Glacier Institute’s Big Creek Outdoor Education Center.

They hiked to Cyclone Lookout. They studied aquatics and pond ecology by fishing bugs out of Mud Lake. They also learned about energy conservation and how to “rough it a little bit” by staying in cabins that have electricity only a few hours a day, Cotton said.

“It was a great learning experience for the kids to see you can survive if you don’t have cellphones or Internet access. You rely on the beauty of nature,” she said.

The youths already have ideas about sharing what they learned at Glacier. Teenagers from the group plan to teach younger children about pond ecology and they want to post fliers around the community challenging their neighbors to reduce their energy consumption, Cotton said.

“This has been such a tremendous learning opportunity for us on so many levels,” she said. “We were able to show our kids that there is a big world out there, and that they can do something to make an impact beyond our community.

“To get it all documented on national television is pretty special,” she added.

The “America the Beautiful” feature is scheduled to air on the “Today” show Friday morning. The program runs from 7 to 10 a.m. on NBC.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.