On a freezing cold Saturday January 25th, 2014, an intrepid crew congregated at Ellis International High school for a trip up to Bear Mountain. ICO leader Ray Greenwell and four other ICO volunteers came prepared with extra hats, gloves, scarves and leg-warmers as back-up, along with back-packs for the 16 Ellis students. Priscilla, the teacher from the school, had prepared the students and brought the lunches for them provided by Red Rabbit.

Snow was falling thickly by the time we reached Bear Mountain, which made this winter adventure even more fun. The day started with in-door games, including an epic human-knot un-raveling (how did we do that??). And after lunch, some of the kids and volunteers took a turn on the merry go-round, with a lot of laughs.

The main event of the day at Bear Mountain was ice skating. In spite of the cold and snow, all of the kids got out on the ice, and had a great time. Some kids were skating for the first time, including one girl from Albania, and one from Ghana, and some seemed like they were already ready for the winter Olympics! Unfortunately, one student had a fall and hit her head on the ice. Although she felt fine later, the decision was made to head back to school a little early as a precaution. A visit to the zoo had been also on the agenda, but will have to be planned for another day.

While waiting for the bus, students and volunteers all participated in some more games outside and snowball fights, led by Ray. Although we didn’t make it to the zoo, this turned out to be a full day of fun. Looking forward next to the Orienteering trip with Ellis in March!