A gaggle of pre-K through grade 8 students from The Whiting Village School descended on Cobscook Shores Red Point Nature Preserve on Friday, Oct. 18 for a three-hour apple pressing excursion. Roughly 24 students, teachers, and chaperones – including Faye Costa, the school’s new principal – arrived by school bus around noon and set out with Cobscook Shores Outdoor Education Program leaders for a fun-filled afternoon of apple picking and pressing. Students partook in all aspects of the activity, including picking, chopping, and pressing, and they enjoyed the fruits of their labor with bounteous cups of fresh cider. Students also collected apples to be distributed to local pig farmers in the Lubec area.
The Red Point Nature Preserve has a wide variety of apples, with trees dating back at least 80 years, including one “great-grandmother tree” that is thought to date to the late 18th or early 19th century.
“Our thanks to Cobscook Shores for allowing us to participate in the apple pressing,” said Whiting Village School Principal Faye Costa. “It’s important to show our students the beauty of their community and connect with the people in it; it builds a better appreciation of the world around them. We are so fortunate to have great learning opportunities right in our backyard and wonderful people like those at Cobscook Shores that can give our students these experiences.”
This fall alone, The Outdoor Education Program has served 595 participants from 12 eastern Maine elementary schools, including Calais, Cutler, Eastport, Edmunds, East Machias, Lubec, Pembroke, Perry, Whiting, and others. A variety of activities are offered throughout the fall, including biking, kayaking, hiking, and cider pressing. Programs are offered to eastern Maine schools free of charge and include gear and safety equipment. Winter programs typically begin in January and include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking.
To learn more about the Cobscook Shores Outdoor Education Program, visit: https://cobscookshores.org/csoep/or email [email protected].
