Dog-sled program helps students get on track Ellsworth teens use outdoors as classroom

MOUNT DESERT – Alec Jordan, 14, sat in a wooden sled, comfortable but excited, as two seemingly inexhaustible Siberian huskies worked together to carry him across a field of newly fallen snow.

A few minutes later, Alec noticed that the dogs didn’t always get along so well.

“But they don’t dislike each other when they are working,” he said. “Like people.”

Alec, a freshman, and some of his classmates from Ellsworth High School are learning that the sport of dog sledding offers unique lessons in history, math and science.

They also are learning that the dogs themselves can teach people a thing or two about health and humanity.

Through an after-school program designed to supplement classroom instruction, the students travel by bus to Camp Beech Cliff on Mount Desert Island after the bell rings to learn about dog sledding.

They gathered recently in a clearing of fresh snow with instructor Kim Counts and took turns being pulled in the sled by two Siberian huskies named Puck and Gizzy and two Alaskan huskies named Anu and Durga. The students harnessed the animals, assembled the sled and shouted mushing commands to signal the dogs when to turn and when to stop. At the end, they showered their four-legged friends with praise and biscuits.

“These dogs love positive feedback,” said Kyle Bissell, director of adventure education at the camp. “They love to be loved.”

The dog-sledding sessions are part of a host of activities available at Ellsworth High School through a program called Project ASPIRE, or After School Programming for Involvement, Responsibility and Education.

The project, which operates with funding from a federal 21st Century Community Learning Center grant, offers students who are at risk of failing their classes extra help through tutoring, math and reading interventions and recreational activities that promote team building and improving self-esteem.

About 25 students are in the program. Teachers choose them based on the students’ need for extra academic help. The activities are designed to correspond with the curriculum, according to Project ASPIRE coordinator Kristina Braga. Building a dog sled helps with math, carpentry and communications skills, and learning about the heritage of dog sledding helps with history.

“In building the dog sled, they are using a lot of information they are getting in their classes,” Braga said Friday during a telephone interview. “They are actually experiencing it and seeing hands-on how it works.”

In addition to the academic lessons, the program also teaches the teenagers about health, relationships and community, Bissell said. They can see how food, exercise, rest and positive interaction make the dogs strong and happy, and they can relate those lessons to their own lives, he said.

“They [the dogs] can be a platform for learning about people working together,” he said.

Meg Stewart-Burden of Somesville, a licensed family and substance abuse counselor, owns the dogs and uses them in a youth dog-sledding program called Pulling Together. The program is designed to get students 10 to 17 years old interested in the sport of dog sledding as an alternative to drugs, alcohol, video games and other things that can lead to addiction, obesity and other problems.

“We try to foster an affection for the outdoors,” Stewart-Burden said later. “Show a child a dog, and their eyes light up.”

The children, she said, learn about math, science, health, culture and leadership. Having responsible relationships and showing compassion for themselves and others are among the most important lessons, she said.

“The first lesson the kids learn when they go out and hook up a team of dogs is that it is noisy,” she said. “It is difficult to stay grounded, keep your wits about you and stay focused. When the stress of the world closes in on you, it’s good to know how to calm yourself. Then the second lesson is take care of yourself first so you can take care of the dogs. Then they can take care of you.”

A few of the students said they have noticed that sled dogs have relationships much like people have relationships. The animals sometimes bark at one another when one isn’t pulling its weight, they said.

“Like in a football game, when people are slacking off,” freshman Tom Callahan said.

Sam Estey, a freshman, said he has participated in a lot of after-school activities, but dog sledding has been his favorite.

“I like the dogs,” he said. “I want one.”