SANDPOINT — Selkirk Outdoor and Leadership Education is a step closer to providing an enclosed, permanent location to continue its mission of educating and empowering underserved rural youth through outdoor physical activity.

The city of Sandpoint recently awarded SOLE $28,413.64 through the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation’s High Five grant. The award brings the nonprofit closer to its major fundraising goal of $70,000 for a Mountain Field Campus, according to a statement by SOLE officials. The campus will be located at Schweitzer Mountain Resort, where the youth will explore and learn about their winter wildlands and the greater Lake Pend Oreille Watershed.

“It is our vision that this community multi-use facility will serve as an outdoor learning center to educate and empower our underserved local area youth through purposeful place-based experiential and outdoor education programs which utilize mountain-based outdoor recreation as the mode of travel,” Dennison Webb, SOLE founder and executive director, said in the statement.

Since 2010, SOLE has been focused on providing intentional and transformational experiential education programs for youth in the Sandpoint community and beyond, according to the statement. SOLE’s programs have served more than 3,000 underserved rural youth, most notably through SOLE’s signature program, the SnowSchool Experience.

In partnership with the Boise-based nonprofit, the Winter Wildlands Alliance, SOLE’s SnowSchool Experience program provides novel, on the snow, hands-on outdoor experiences, where students are able to explore and learn in their winter wildlands through lessons related to snow science, winter ecology, conservational literacy, avalanche awareness, and outdoor living and travel skills. While there are 66 SnowSchool sites nationwide, SOLE’s SnowSchool Experience program at Schweitzer was recognized as a National Flagship SnowSchool Site in 2017, becoming only the second site to receive this designation, according to the statement. SOLE earned regional accolades in 2017, when it’s SnowSchool Experience program received an Innovation Award from the Idaho Nonprofit Center for its innovative approach to education, specifically its novel E-STEM place-based experiential education curriculum.

The SnowSchool Experience is a three-day program for students, said SOLE education advisor Joy Jansen, and in the Lake Pend Oreille School District, all fifth graders participate. “SnowSchool allows youth to explore their winter wildlands, make sound academic connections to the world that surrounds them, foster a relationship with nature, and develop memories that last a lifetime,” Jansen said in the email. “ In the end, the Snow School Experience provides an opportunity for students to unplug and reconnect with nature, themselves, peers, and their community.”

To date SnowSchool has served over 2,400 students in Idaho and Montana, she said. SOLE’s SnowSchool video, “Exploring our Winter Wildlands,” was highlighted during 2016-2017 Winter Wildlands Backcountry Film Festival. The festival is shown in 150 locations nationally and internationally. The video can be seen at vimeo.com/179256073.

The city of Sandpoint was awarded a total of $250,000 High Five grant through the Idaho Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation’s childhood obesity initiative. The allocation of the grant funds was determined by the Bonner County Coalition for Health, which partnered with the foundation to identify projects that supported either increased physical activity and access to healthy, affordable foods in the community, according to the statement.

In addition to the previously mentioned partners, SOLE has garnered support from local businesses, agencies, and corporations to ensure that local youth have affordable access to the experiential education programs that SOLE offers. These partners include, Schweitzer Mountain Resort, Bonner General Health, Kochava, Evans Brothers Coffee Roasters, the William Wishnick Foundation, Panhandle Alliance for Education, Innovia Foundation, Equinox Foundation, and Lake Pend Oreille School District, along with the support of many generous personal donors, according to the statement.

For information or to get involved, contact SOLE at info@soleexperiences.org or call 208-265-7653.