Vanier Secondary garage sale funding the future of Explore Program

Students explore the Ripple Rock Trail on one of their class expeditions. Teacher Grayson Pettigrew says the fundraiser will pay for transportation on future trips. Image courtesy of G.P. Vanier Explore Program.

Local high school G.P. Vanier’s Explore Program is hosting their famed fundraiser, gearing up for Spring trips into the great outdoors.

Grayson Pettigrew is one of the program’s three teachers, and he shares what makes the Explore Program special.

“The Explore program is an integrated studies program, so it combines academics and Outdoor Ed, which is a little bit unique. So it combines Biology, Mathematics, English, P.E., and then Outdoor Ed skills. So it's a chance for students to practice their academics in a really um communal environment. We try and set communities, they work together through their academics and then building trust with each other, they take that trust out into the outdoors and then work on their outdoor skills,” he said.

A past group treks the Cape Scott Trail, one of four multi-day excursions throughout the semester-long program. Image courtesy of G.P. Vanier Explore Program.

Some of those outdoor skills involve learning about local traditions and environments, environmental stewardship, basic skills to be comfortable in their local environments, and safe outdoor travel skills, whether backpacking or canoeing.

The program is one semester long: the Spring semester of Grade 11 for 48 students from all three local high schools. The academics are covered early in the semester, to leave room for multi-day overnight trips in the second half. 

“That's where that trust in each other, where they can work together, really comes into play as they work through their academics as a group. And then that frees up time for us to do those multi-day, overnight trips in the spring,” the teacher explained.

Pettigrew said that one of the joys of the program is bringing together students from the different schools, some of whom may not know each other, and creating space for them to build long-lasting connections.

“They're stepping out of their comfort zone a little bit, either coming from a new school or joining this program, and watching them develop over the semester, just the comfort with each other, the ability to work in small groups and large groups and make those connections that last a lifetime. I think that's the key thing to the success of this program, is the students really become a tight knit group, and those connections do last a long time,” he said. “I've been teaching this program for 17 years and, and I run this into students from years past, and they're still connected with their cohort that they went through. And I think that's probably one of the most rewarding things, is just seeing the maturity of the whole group as this semester progresses is really something that keeps me coming back.”

Pettigrew said that one main challenge for the program, being a public school on Vancouver Island, is transportation for the large group to their multi-day adventures. Each year they do a similar series of four four-day trips, including canoeing, team building at Strathcona Park Lodge, backpacking in Cape Scott, and a big end of the semester celebration. For some of the bigger trips they split the group in two for safety, but in general the 48 students and three teachers make up one big cohort.

To be able to finance the transportation for these adventures, once a year the program puts on one giant fundraiser that Pettigrew called a “giant garage sale, plus more.”

“Our gym is gonna be filled with treasures for anybody who wants to come by, and we also have a car wash, we also have a concession, there's a silent auction, there's a plant sale. And it all happens at the same time, at the Vanier gym, our school gym,” he said. “And this has become a bit of an institution as well, this garage sale has been going for about 20 years, and people mark it on their calendar and they line up early. It opens at eight, but people are there at seven at the door waiting to get first dibs on whatever they can find in the garage sale.”

Pettigrew said that this fundraiser helps make it possible to take the Explore Program on their outdoor adventures, as most of the funds go to transportation. They also contribute to maintaining equipment, and if there is any left over, a special whale watching experience for the students on the last trip.

A past group rests on a kayak trip to Vargas Island. Grayson Pettigrew has watched countless lifelong bonds form through his years with the program. Image courtesy of G.P. Vanier Explore Program.

He also said that when it comes to the financial needs of students when paying the semester fee, the program and administration are keen to coordinate support wherever they can, to make the program accessible to everyone. 

“We've actually even had parents that have had like three kids go through just tell us, this was years ago, just saying you know, ‘such a great program. If any student needs help, get them to write me a letter and we'll pay for them.’ So it's really created a community. And some of the parents were willing to help future kids that aren't even theirs go and do it as well. So it's pretty unique in that way,” he said.

The adventures the cohort go on build life-long memories; Pettigrew says he could write a book with all of them. One that stands out to him as a biology lover was one early morning packing up their gear at Cape Scott.

“Up at Cape Scott, we were packing up our gear at 6:30 in the morning on our last day, and two wolves came out of the woods, and one stopped near a camp and the other one went down the beach and they howled back and forth to each other,” he remembers. “All the students and teachers, we just stopped what we were doing and just watched in awe at this happen[ing] in the early morning light. It was phenomenal. And then they both just disappeared into the bush, and then we carried on packing up and hiked out. It was just one of those moments where no words needed to be said. It was just a fantastic moment in nature.”

To find out more about the Explore Program visit their website, and to show your support visit G.P. Vanier between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 3rd.

“Definitely there's some treasures for everybody in there, so that's the place to be if you want to come down on Saturday. And even if you don't find anything, there's a donation bin too.”

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with CVOX.