“Increasing diversification of outreach and educational opportunities through inclusion of schools and the general public from the entire beaver lake watershed using a variety of educational and competitive events and through the information and activities of an environmental educational midway.”
This is one of the many goals for the 2014 Beaver Lake games through the program known as ABLE (Association for Beaver Lake Environment), the organization who developed the concept for the games.
ABLE reported that they partnered with the Beaver water district and area environmental educators and community businesses to develop an athletic and academic competition for area high schools.
The academic games took place at NWACC, and the athletic games were at Prairie Creek Park on Beaver Lake, both took place Saturday, September 20th.
“This was the first year for the games. James Gately from the Beaver Lake Watershed came to a faculty meeting last year and introduced the idea and events that would take place,” said AP Literature and Composition teacher Amy Johnson.
“I got excited because I love to kayak and canoe, and felt that students would like to compete in those events,” said Johnson.
Twenty-four students attended both academic and athletic events ranging from Photo contests to Archery and Airgun from Har-Ber. Junior Ethan Elledge won first place in photography, and Sophomore Lili Riche placed third in photography.
“I literally had no inspiration for my photos, it was ten minutes until sunset, and I had to have the photos submitted for the next day,” said Elledge. “The photos were taken at beaver lake, and I took them there because Mrs. Sprague told me too.”
Senior Seth Jones took first in Airgun and Fly Casting. Overall, Har-Ber came in second.
“I expect to have many more students compete next year. Since it was new, we had difficulty getting the word out, but hopefully this will be a great tradition for Har-Ber to attend and dominate,” said Johnson.
Junior Abby Lane was one of the few students to participate in the first ever games and found herself receiving attention from the local news due to it.
“I wanted to compete because I love trying new things and embarrassing the crap out of myself. I’m also really competitive and love being outdoors,” said Lane.
Lane competed in three events, team canoe, girls individual slalome, (she placed second in both), and team canoe slalome, which she took first in.
“My favorite part about the whole experience was falling in the water and being called “the funniest person I’ve ever met” by my competitors. That’s what got me in the newspaper,” said Lane.