Schools
Student Asks D159 For Outdoor Ed Back: Video
Mokena Intermediate School fifth-grader Gina Arndt, 10, collected 85 student signatures asking the school to bring back the overnight outdoor education program.
fifth-grader Gina Arndt, 10, has been hearing about the three-day overnight trip to Camp Timber-lee in Wisconsin since she was in kindergarten.
She was surprised when she found out in late January that hers would be the first class in years not to go. The district replaced the program with two day trips to in Olympia Fields.
Read why the district changed the outdoor education program.
Find out what's happening in Mokenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
"When I found out they weren't going to have it this year, I didn't think it was really fair," Arndt said.
Arndt wanted to do something about it.
Find out what's happening in Mokenawith free, real-time updates from Patch.
After her mother Nancy suggested a petition, Arndt got working collecting signatures and writing the speech she presented to the board on Thursday. She ended up with 85 signatures from MIS fifth-graders.
Nancy Arndt described herself as "very proud."
"It takes a lot of guts to stand up in front of a group of people and talk about something you believe in," Nancy Arndt said.
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