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Wilderness Education for Youth in Quetico

The Voyageur Wilderness Programme is a 35-year-old ecological education program that exposes young people to the Quetico Provincial Park wilderness area in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The program aims to stimulate students' minds and senses through immersion in the unspoiled natural environment. Over 25,000 students have participated, mostly from the Midwest United States, and the program has proven to be a powerful and positive experience that enhances self-image and teaches valuable life lessons through cooperation with others. Students develop a new appreciation for nature and insight into their personality when gently approached in the non-risk wilderness setting.

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7 views1 page

Wilderness Education for Youth in Quetico

The Voyageur Wilderness Programme is a 35-year-old ecological education program that exposes young people to the Quetico Provincial Park wilderness area in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. The program aims to stimulate students' minds and senses through immersion in the unspoiled natural environment. Over 25,000 students have participated, mostly from the Midwest United States, and the program has proven to be a powerful and positive experience that enhances self-image and teaches valuable life lessons through cooperation with others. Students develop a new appreciation for nature and insight into their personality when gently approached in the non-risk wilderness setting.

Uploaded by

etc5
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Evan Troy Crawford

Summer

Voyageur Wilderness Programme


"Come into the wilderness, my friend, leave society and take no one with you but your true self. Get close
to nature. Your everyday games will be insignificant. Notice the clouds spontaneously forming patterns
and try to do that with your life."

Ecological Education Through Wilderness Experience


Voyageur Wilderness Programme was founded 35
years ago with the idea that young people can
learn a great deal in a short time when exposed
to a wilderness environment that stimulates
their minds, their senses and their
imaginations. For that reason we chose to
introduce young people to a true wilderness
areaQuetico
Provincial
Park
in
Northwestern Ontario, Canada.
Very few people ever have the
opportunity to experience true
wilderness; to feel oneself
flowing with the natural
rhythms of a wild place.
Quetico and the Voyageur
Wilderness
Programme
provide such an experience
every summer for hundreds of
youngsters, mostly of high
school age, from around
Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis,
Detroit, etc.
Quetico is rich in history. These
lakes and rivers were the sacred
places for the ancestors of our
modern Indians, as testified to by the
ancient rock paintings found on the
shores of many Quetico lakes.

Quetico is a vast land of deep blue lakes, green


pine forests and spruce bogs-- a classic example
of ancient precambrian shield landscape still
recovering from the last period of glaciation.
Eagles soar overhead, and fish swim below in
the fresh, cool waters.

When approached gently in a non-risk


manner this wild and natural environment
gives you a new appreciation of nature's
unspoiled ways, and a valuable
insight
into
your
own
personality.
You
rapidly
develop a spirit of cooperation
and a tolerance for the varied
strengths and weaknesses of
your companions. Your selfimage is enhanced. And these
lessons are not transitory. Our
experience with over 25,000
young people over the last 35
years has shown Voyageur Wilderness
"Come into the
Programme to have been a powerful
wilderness, my
and positive high point in their
development.
friend, leave

society and take


no one with you
but your true
self.

During the 18th and early 19th


centuries, French-Canadian Voyageurs paddled and
sang their way through the waterways of Quetico in
search of adventure and furs for the markets of
Europe.
Today, the Voyageur Wilderness Programme is
under the direction of Guy Savoie, a FrenchCanadian and long-time friend of the founders of
the programme.

Many have repeated the experience by


joining our programme for two, three,
and even four years in a row. Many
more have become active in
supporting the cause of wilderness by
writing letters and becoming involved
with such organizations as the Sierra Club and
others. Still others have chosen a college
curriculum aimed at a career in outdoor education,
wilderness management, forestry or other related
fields.1
1

From the Voyager Wilderness Programme website,


[Link]

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