Brewer High’s Jalbert draws on skills, desire in grueling hike

loading...

Mark Savage can’t tell you how many camping trips he has helped lead over the past several years in his role as an outdoor education teacher at Brewer High School.

But he can tell you – and will, given half a chance – that the weekend trip he just returned from was different from any other he has taken.

The reason: This time, Catherine Jalbert went along.

Savage and fellow teacher Cindy McLaughlin didn’t change much on this trip. They put together a rigorous schedule of three hikes for their 50 campers, including one night exercise, one bush-whacking jaunt, and another challenge that’s simply called “11-Mile Hike.”

Catherine opted for the 11-miler. She finished three miles of it. And that’s the reason Savage is willing to say things like this:

“It’s the best trip we’ve ever had. And it’s because of her.”

Catherine, you see, was born with spina bifida, a neural tube defect that occurs in one of every 1,000 newborns in the U.S.

She has no use of her legs. She gets around in a wheelchair.

And there she was, last weekend, manipulating her chair over roots and rocks, up and down hills. Sometimes, she needed a bit of help. But most of the time, the 15-year-old Brewer freshman told people she was doing fine and opted to help herself.

“I was laughing all the way up,” she said on Wednesday, reliving the hike during a trip “de-briefing” during outdoor education class. “I don’t know what made me laugh. Sometimes it was the [teaching assistants]. Sometimes it was me. And sometimes it was just laughing to laugh.”

The class Savage has created at Brewer relies on a few core values. Teamwork. Pushing limitations. Doing things that you didn’t think possible.

Last weekend, Catherine added another.

She did things she was pretty sure she could do … but that others probably deemed impossible for people in her situation.

Jamie Spencer, a senior at Brewer and one of the trip’s TA’s, noticed.

“[I’d use] one word [to describe Jalbert],” Spencer said. “Wow.”

All along the Gulf Hagas trail, there are obstacles that slow down hikers as they hoof it through the woods. Hikers in wheelchairs? They’re not supposed to have a chance.

Catherine didn’t care.

“There were these balance-beam type things that I crawled over,” she said, explaining one of the moments when the other students began to realize that there was something different about the freshman in the chair.

“I didn’t know what the trail was, or how bad it was, but I had a feeling that I could do it,” she said.

She did. Time after time.

At one point, Spencer got an indication that something special was happening on the trail behind him.

“I was in the first group, and we [ended up with] such a small group,” Spencer said. “Most of the kids wanted to watch her do it [instead]. They thought it was phenomenal watching her go across the logs.”

Savage said the scene at the log crossing was inspirational.

“The respect factor went right through the ceiling when they saw her do that,” he said.

“It was beyond words, almost,” McLaughlin agreed. You could feel their emotions.”

The students did help her ford a stream by forming two lines and handing Catherine – still in her chair – across.

But at several other times, she refused help, got out of her chair, and scrambled up steep rock slopes.

“[Some] were eight to 12 feet high, and she’s on her own on those,” Savage said. “She’s crawling those. She gets right out of her chair and goes.”

Things didn’t always go smoothly. No hike ever does. Twice, Catherine ended up on her back after her chair tipped. Once, she said, it was her fault. Once, someone else made a mistake. She dealt with both situations the same.

“I was laughing both times,” she said.

Catherine Jalbert is a quiet girl. She said that was evident early in the trip, as she got to know people she’d only seen in the hallways at school.

“I knew two people at first. I was kind of shy and nervous,” she told her classmates on Wednesday. “After awhile … it changed all around.”

So did expectations. Just ask Spencer.

“Before the weekend, I thought she was a regular student who wanted to go camping, but she had a disability,” he said. “Now, she’s a super-student. She’s like superman. She can do just about everything that we can do. She’s proven it. And that’s amazing.”

All the praise seems to make Catherine a bit nervous. But she sheepishly admits that she may have turned into a bit of an inspiration for some classmates … and may have eliminated any possible excuses for others.

“[Some people] didn’t think I could do it, but after they saw me, they were excited and happy for me,” she said.

Savage has coached for years, and said what Catherine accomplished reminds him of things he saw in athletics. Almost.

“[What she did] is more than upper body and arms. It’s heart,” Savage said.

“And I’ve never seen an athlete with as much heart as she has.”

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net, or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.