This past weekend, I spent two days driving the mini-bus to Slayton, Minnesota with our two Envirothon teams that advanced to the state competition. Our students left at around noon on Sunday and made the 450-mile expedition to the southwest corner of the state. Following the competition on Monday, they got back on the bus and made the trek back home arriving in Cook County at about 11 p.m. after nearly 1,000 miles of travel.
What exactly is Envirothon? In short, it is an environmental learning competition for high school students. At competitions, students compete at learning stations where they must complete a 20-point exam for each topic. Topics of the stations are: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife, and Current Events. In addition, student teams are given a current events topic before the competition in which they must prepare an oral presentation and answer questions from judges.
Coach Chad Benesh has been filling in for Coach April Wahlstrom while she is out on maternity leave. Coach Benesh and Coach Wahlstrom have done a remarkable job working with these fine young people. On the trip, Coach Benesh took 11 participants to the state competition: Claire LaVigne, Andy Kern, Abby Prom, Robin Henrikson, Aurora Schelmeske, Amelia Roth, Leif Anderson, Doran Acero, Chloe Blackburn, Hazel Oberholtzer, and Lucy Callender.
I was so impressed with this thoughtful group of young people. All of them are extremely well spoken, polite, and fun to be around. We made a pit stop at the Mall of America for lunch on the way down, set up a meeting point, and told them to buddy up and stick together. No one was late, everyone did what was asked, and they seemed to genuinely enjoy each other as people.
Upon arrival at the hotel, they lobbied for a little additional time in the hotel pool than originally planned. It was pretty tough to say no, so we didn’t even try. When we went down to make sure everyone was in their rooms on time for their night, no reminders were necessary. It is so very rewarding to work with such responsible young people.
At the competition itself, our students represented our school well. They did their best, carried themselves with class, and were respectful and thoughtful throughout the day. In the end, our two Cook County teams took fourth and seventh respectively in the competition. I walked away with a new appreciation for these fine young people.
In addition to Envirothon, nine of the 11 students are also competitive athletes in either track or softball. What do the other two slackers do? They simply spent hours and hours dedicated to rehearsing for the dance performance that took place in our community last week.
On the way home it was nice to hear all 11 students having conversations, sharing stories, and building relationships rather than being engrossed in their own personal electronic devices.
Often times, our current generation of young people gets a bad rap for not living up to the expectations of the generations before them. I am here to tell you that these young people are the real deal. Our “best of the best” is still the “best of the best” regardless of the generation in which they were raised. This past weekend, I was reminded of how proud I am to be a Cook County Viking.
These Envirothon students truly are the best of the best.
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