The Survival program at Old Rochester Regional Junior High School has been a vital component of the seventh grade experience for almost 50 years.
The weeklong camping trip in Northfield, Massachusetts provides the opportunity to make lifelong memories, learn outdoor skills, and develop character that carries forward into life beyond ORR.
Former students who were part of the program during their years at ORRJHS now look forward to sending their own children, and grandchildren, into the wild. The mantle has been handed down from the founders in 1973 to the current program leaders, and while each iteration adds some of their own ideas to the program, the core purpose and fundamental approach remains the same – get as many kids as possible into the woods on a “shared road to a stronger self” as the motto of the program states.
No individual who is or was involved in the program remains unchanged by their experience. The trip creates lifelong friendships, strong mentorship relationships, and in some cases may change a person’s life forever in ways totally unexpected.
This year, the seventh grade will brave the elements in Northfield from June 11 to 17.
Two ORRJHS science teachers, Carleton Vaughn and Jim Hubbard, inspired by Euell Gibbons, the author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus, and stories from former students about the Outward Bound program, started the Survival program in 1973 as a way to augment the existing science curriculum and bring the classroom outdoors. They began with the intent of teaching mostly local flora, particularly locally available edible plants. Originally, as Jim Hubbard puts it, the idea was for the students to “live strictly off the land … collecting cat o’ nine tails tubers, sassafras and, we were lucky enough to have wild strawberries.”
At the start, the program was run in Rochester for four nights. After a couple of successful years, but with unfortunate interference from other local kids riding dirt bikes to interrupt the camping trip, a local Mattapoisett family, the Fields, offered some land in Northfield for the program to use. There, the program blossomed with the support and enthusiasm of folks from Tri-Town as well as supporters in Northfield.
The number of participants has fluctuated throughout the years, averaging 100 students at a time. The participants are broken into two groups, each staying in basecamp while the other is sent out on a three-day hiking expedition.
The students spend the spring at school preparing for this experience, learning about building emergency shelters, orienteering, wild plants, and other survival and outdoor skills.
No matter the year in which an alumnus of the program participated, the stories are the same – the week in the woods in Northfield challenged their own assumptions about themselves and their abilities, both physically and mentally.
Marcia Reed Anuszczyk credits her trip on Survival in 1979 with changing her life. Anuszczyk describes her seventh grade self as not being a great student, being small in stature, not great at team sports, and feeling less worthy than many of her classmates.
Anuszczyk says, however, that once she was out in the woods, “I found a power in my life that I’d never known I had.” She watched as other students struggled with elements of the trip that she found herself enjoying, and being in the woods revealed something she had not previously known about herself. “I tapped into something I never knew was there,” said Anuszczyk. “I had the power to keep up, carry my backpack, I could do this!”
This newfound belief in herself crystalized when Anuszczyk discovered that one of the faculty who was chaperoning, Jeff Rodman – an ORRJHS math teacher – was taking a group of boys to run with him seven miles back to basecamp. Anuszczyk asked to join in, and she succeeded in running the entire distance.
This experience at Survival compelled Anuszczyk, with two other girls, to start the ORR girls’ cross-country team in 1982, and to run track for ORR from 1981 through 1985.
Anuszczyk ultimately chaperoned Survival for 16 years. This dedication is common among Survival alumni, often starting immediately in eighth grade and continuing through college and beyond as community member chaperones. Community dedication to the program is key to its success and longevity.
Susan Wheeler, the current co-director of Survival since 2005 with Melanie Lean, described the years before her when Rory McFee, who succeeded Hubbard and Vaughn, ran the program. McFee mentored her in the program, and Wheeler says that McFee modernized the program in some respects, “making it a bit kinder and gentler, less of a boot camp experience,” as she put it. But McFee kept the fundamentals the same.
Survival is a huge endeavor, which requires vast numbers of dedicated volunteers. Wheeler noted that it is a well-oiled if not giant machine, with returning volunteers that are veterans for decades in the program. Bulwarks of the program include Rochester Police Chief Paul Magee and Mattapoisett Sergeant Robert Dumas who help organize the logistics of providing food and water, or expeditions led by among others veteran Kevin “KT” Thompson who create and maintain the fire and the safety of the participants, among other important tasks.
Judy DeMailly has been volunteering for the program since 1978 when, as a mother of a participating student, she noticed a need for medical personnel; being an EMT, she decided to volunteer. She has participated every year since and has enlisted her son Russell, who is a pediatric nurse, to go as well.
The budget supplied by the town offsets some of the food costs, but the lion’s share of the cost is borne by community support of money and in-kind donations solicited by the volunteers. This support is crucial to the future of Survival.
Wheeler sees considerable growth in the kids who experience the program. “It’s an opportunity for a hobby or interest to be revealed.” She described one former student who wasn’t especially comfortable in the woods and was not having the greatest time at Survival. However, when it came time to discuss the historical context of Northfield, his face lit up and he found his voice, describing all that he knew as a history buff of the history of the area.
Hubbard noted that initially he and Vaughn sought out students with discipline issues in school, saying, “It was good to get these kids into the woods where they got outside of themselves and weren’t the center of attention and could experience something beyond themselves.”
Wheeler says there are now more students who would like to participate than they can accommodate. For students who cannot attend Survival, the school provides a program called S.C.O.P.E. – Student Centered Opportunity for Personal Enrichment – run by ORRJHS science teacher Kathryn Gauvin. This program provides an opportunity for students to be outdoors and be similarly challenged through local field trips and cross-curricular activities.
Maggie Brogioli will be heading into the woods this June, following in the footsteps of her two older brothers Luke and Matthew. She is looking forward to the experience, especially, she says, “Meeting and hanging out with different people than who I am usually with in school.”
One of the benefits of the program is that students who wouldn’t otherwise see each other at school are put into groups and situations where they interact and get to know each other.
Students are not allowed to bring any technology like cameras, watches, and of course phones or similar devices.
Sophomore Matthew Brogioli said, “It felt good to get away from (technology) and not be so dependent on it. It was so different not to be able to just call your parents.”
Freshman Luke Brogioli liked being with the friends he knew, “But you had this responsibility to take care of yourself.” Their father Mark Brogioli said he thought it was a good experience for parents, too. There is no contact between parents and their children for the week except for a few photos posted by the Mattapoisett Police. Brogioli said, “Some parents are in tears. We are so connected by cell phones and text; it’s as important for the parents to let the kids go as it is for the kids to go.” Stella Brogioli expressed many parent’s perspective when she said “It’s exciting to see them go, and it’s exciting to see them come back!”
This year, program founder Jim Hubbard’s grandson Connor Hubbard will be participating in Survival, the third generation to head into the woods. Remarkably, young Hubbard will be sharing in an experience very little changed from the one his grandfather envisioned almost 50 years ago. That is a legacy of which not only Hubbard but also ORRJHS should be proud.
By Sarah French Storer