Barone’s 6th graders raise funds for Granby trip

MEEKER I It looks like the sixth-grade students at Barone Middle School in Meeker will have some early school-year bonding to do as they embark Sept. 16-19 on the second annual Sixth Grade Outdoor Experience in Granby, Colo.
Fifty students and five chaperones, most connected to the school, will travel via Meeker School District bus to Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby. Once there, the group will study science, history, reading and writing as well as outdoor skills, survival skills and how to get along in a group setting, said Theresa Anderson, a Barone sixth-grade arts language and science instructor. Anderson is heading up the details of the trip along with Willy Theos, a sixth-grade math and social studies teacher at the school.
This is the second year for the trip; last year, 55 students and five chaperones made the trip.
This year’s class had to raise its goal of $12,000 to make the trip, Anderson said.
“The class surpassed that goal with the help of a lot of different donors,” she said. “The community responded once again to the students’ needs, and we can’t say how grateful we are to all of them.
“This is a great opportunity for the students,” Anderson said. “Our primary goal was to unify the sixth-grade students who are entering Barone Middle School for the first time.”
“We hope the kids bond at the camp, set up life-long friendships and build life experiences,” she said. “This will likely be a time the students will never forget.”
Barone Principal Jim Hanks will serve a dual purpose on this trip, Anderson said, explaining that he will be one of the chaperones and that he will also serve as the bus driver for the trip.
Anderson said the money was raised by making presentations to many boards, councils, groups and companies in the county, “and they all responded to our needs very generously.”
In addition to private donations and word of mouth, Anderson said the sponsors of the trip that chipped in to meet the goal of the class expenses were United Way, the Freeman E. Fairfield Foundation, the Meeker Library, Shelton Welding, White River Electric Association, the Town of Meeker, Highlands Cemetery Improvement District and Colowyo Coal.