The
May 1, 2013
Countryy Editor
Volume 1 Number 3
East
Just good reading
Settling the dust
A ruff reunion
Fish Tales
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Takee a hike Hiking to Jake’s Pond by Jamie Aloi he Friday started out like most, campers from the week leaving to go home and the staff of Oswegatchie Educational Center was planning something fun to do for the weekend. This particular weekend 10 of us decided to hike to Jake’s Pond, a roughly 4 mile hike near Croghan, NY that none of us had ever done. We also decided to stay the night at the leanto said to be near the pond. We started out late because two of us had to work a group that afternoon so it was already after 4 pm when we started our journey. The first mile or so we had all done countless of times, it lead to Trout Falls which is where we take campers and swim on the weekends. The rest was a mystery to us. We came across two bridges crossing edges of ponds where the river flowed on. As we were trekking further the trail became less and less traveled and in spots more muddy. We eventually hit a ‘road’ block. We had to figure out a way to cross a river that wasn’t shallow enough for all of us to wade across. Luckily there was a beaver dam that we used our training in teamwork and treated it as a low ropes element (a teambuilding game or element where the group has a task to com-
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plete). The dam wasn’t super steady and we had our clunky bags on our backs but we all made it across without any major losses. After the river there were a few more spots where we had to devise a plan on how we were going to get past them. We had been walking a while and thought that we should be at the pond soon but it was getting dark out and we knew we had to make a camp soon and that’s when we came across a fork in the trail. Not knowing which way to go and knowing we had a short time before it was dark we decided to set up camp right there at the fork. We built a fire and all of us dried— some melted— our socks and shoes. We had a rowdy night of hanging out around the fire and talking. Eventually morning came and we all got up and to our surprise we were right next to a pond, which we later found out was Jake’s Pond. Our hike out was just as crazy as our hike in. We all have awesome stories to tell. I would do this hike again in a heartbeat, even the sleeping in the middle of the trail and trekking across the beaver dam. It’s not about the journey you take, but who you take the journey with that matters. Jamie Aloi grew up in Baldwinsville, NY. She attended camp for 6 years at the Oswegatchie Education Center and then worked there for 5 years. She received her Bachelor's degree in Animal Science from the University of Vermont. Jamie is currently doing an internship in the Horse Barn at Green Chimneys, a school for children with social and mental disabilities.
Know of a great hiking spot? Tell us about it and we’ll pay you $25 plus $5 per photo for every story we print. Send stories and photos to jkarkwren@leepub.com
While crossing the beaver dam they used their training in teamwork and treated it as a low ropes element. Photos by Jamie Aloi
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Woman quilts for scholarships by Becky Malkovich, (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan HERRIN, IL (AP) — A Herrin woman found a unique way to honor the people who helped her on her journey back from a near-fatal car accident and to make sure that help is there for those who need it in the future. A little more than four years ago, Carla Shasteen was in a coma after a car crash left her on a ventilator and suffering from severe head trauma, broken bones and the effects of three strokes. Nearly two weeks after the crash, doctors gave her little chance of survival but her family asked for 30 more days. “I woke up on day 27,” Shasteen said. “I couldn’t walk, talk or even think for myself.” She was able to relearn
those skills at the Acute Rehabilitation Center at Herrin Hospital. “These people were amazing. I couldn’t walk but they taught me to put one foot in front of another: heel, toe, right foot, left foot,” she said. “If not for them and what they do on a daily basis, I don’t know where I’d be. I can’t thank them enough.” But she wanted to try. She established the Carla Shasteen Scholarship Fund for Herrin high school seniors who plan to pursue careers in physical, occupational or speech therapies or rehabilitation nursing. To raise money for the fund, Shasteen and her mother, Dolores “Dee” Arnsmeyer, raffled off quilts they hand made together. “There were times when I didn’t think she would come
home again. I never imagined she would be quilting again,” Arnsmeyer said. “That girl amazed me. She’s made a great comeback.” Dr. Terence Glennon, a physiatrist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago at Herrin Hospital, drew the winner of this year’s quilt during a special ceremony at Herrin Hospital last week. Shasteen, he said after plucking the name of winner Helen Lind of Johnston City from a basket, is an example of “Why people in rehab medicine do what we do. This is what does my heart good. From the beginning point to the person you see before you now, I can see why people use the word ‘miracle.’” The fund provided two $1,000 scholarships last year and will provide another two
this year. “I will need therapy for the rest of my life and with these scholarships, I may be helping train my next therapists,” she said.