Camping helps families reconnect
Relaxation. Connecting with the outdoors. Taking a few days out of the normal routine to become closer as a family. These are just a few of the reasons that families camp at Van Riper State Park near Michigamme. With visits ranging from a couple of days to a month or more, the campers feel a sense of community no matter how long they stay.
Julie and Tom Lindholm of Gaylord have been coming to Van Riper for twenty-six years. They have six children ranging in age from five to eighteen and all of them have been camping since they were babies. This summer, the Lindholms parked their trailer and pitched a tent to spend five weeks at the campground.
Julie said camping brings the family closer.
“You spend a lot of time talking that you don’t have time for when you’re at home with school and everything going on,” Julie said. “Here you just have time. You sit at the campfire. You make time. I know that teachers at school have said that the kids just talk about it all year that they go camping. So they really do get a lot out of it.”
Her son, Martin, fourteen, agrees.
“Camping is a good thing for everyone, and they should come even though they have not that much leisure time,” he said. “They should just make time and be happy camping.”
Lifelong friends are another benefit of camping that the family has reaped.
“The kids have made friendships here over the years,” Julie said. “It’s just been a really good experience; I’d recommend it to anybody.”
Molly Lindholm, age eleven, enjoys seeing old friends she has made while camping.
“This year we saw the same people as last year that we made friends with and these other people that we’ve known since my brother was eight, and he’s eighteen now,” she said.
Paul Pruett of Ishpeming said camping has expanded his family.
“There [are] people we met that we kind of knew before and ended up being good friends with them. Ended up almost like family,” he said. “We camped for five years straight and went to all the same parks together. Now they come up from downstate and they’ll stay with us and go camping.”
Paul has been camping since he was six years old and now brings his own family to Van Riper. They haul out their pop-up camper every couple weeks for four-day weekend trips. Paul’s wife Christie hopes their children Ben, age four, and K.J., age six, will remember good times spent camping with their family. It’s a tradition Christie hopes will continue for generations.
“Just being together as a family. I hope they’ll do that with their kids, too,” she said. “We invite his parents out here, so it’s multi-generation. And his grandma used to come out here with us. It’s just a time to reconnect with everybody in such busy lives.”
For Van Riper campground hosts Ada and Les Ruohomaki of Gladstone, one of the greatest joys of camping is bringing the three generations of their family together—if only for a short time.
“We have four children. Les always says we started camping when our youngest one could go to the bathroom by themselves,” Ada said. “They are now grown and married and have families of there own, and every one of them goes camping. This Labor Day weekend two of our children for sure will be here.”
Both of the Ruohomakis have been camping since they were kids.
“I did go camping when I was growing up,” Les said. “In fact, we came here to Van Riper State Park as a very young boy and camped here before it became a state park in 1962.”
In a way, Ada always has been a camper. Her father worked for the City of Marquette and her family lived at the local Tourist Park campground.
“I lived in Marquette and grew up at the Tourist Park. It was almost like being a camper. We didn’t go camping like we do today, but I enjoyed campers way back when I was a little girl,” Ada said.
This is the Ruohomakis’ ninth year as campground hosts and they have made hundreds of friends. Ada said the campground is like a family.
“The campers are all friends. That’s one nice thing about being a camper, everybody looks out for everybody else,” she said. “If you have a problem you can go to any camper and they’ll do whatever they can to help you.”
Les reminisces about one of the best parts of the camping experience.
“The best memory is sitting around a campfire with a group of other campers and sharing the day’s experiences with the other campers and having them share their experiences with us,” he said.
Paul said camping is one of the best ways you can spend time with your family.
“It might cost $15 to $20 to camp, but it’s a good investment. The kids burn energy… Just look at the sky and how beautiful it is. Too many things to do and not enough time to do it,” he said as he gazed at Lake Michigamme from a picnic table. “Fishing, kayaking, biking, hiking, swimming, you name it, campfires, cooking and eating. You run out of time to do it all.”
—8-18 Media

Editor’s Note: This story was written by Chelsea Parrish, fifteen, and Claire Smith, seventeen, with contributions from Emma Hohman, ten; Danielle Jahnke, nine, and Madeleine Kochis, nine.

Outdoor Explorer Program promotes wonders of state’s natural resources
The wind rustles though the leaves as moonlight shines upon the waves. Owls hoot and a deer pauses at the water’s edge. It’s a scene that children don’t usually experience in their own backyards. But for campers across Michigan who take advantage of the Outdoor Explorer Program, it’s not at all unusual.
Van Riper State Park’s Outdoor Explorer Guide Christine Coluccio said the program helps advertise the wonders of Michigan’s outdoors.
“It’s to help build awareness and recognition for future generations so we can keep state parks in Michigan and keep our natural beauty around us, and help educate people on everyday natural occurrences,” Coluccio said.
Coluccio said the program helps kids form friendships.
“I’ve seen a lot of kids that are strangers to each other because they’re all from different parts of the country, and they all come here for the same reason. I see kids’ siblings, such as brothers and sisters who don’t get along great, who I see get along a lot better by attending these programs,” she said. “I’ve seen a lot of kids become friends with each other because they’re staying here for a week or so at a time and they keep in touch and become pen pals.”
Coluccio said the explorer program satisfies people’s natural curiosity.
“It gives families and individuals and even older people something to look forward to,” she said. “I do programs on moose, wolves, bears, bats, hiking trails, wildflowers, birds of prey, eagles—every day stuff that they might not have had a chance to learn. So I think it gives [families] time to learn with each other and learn how to be in the outdoors with each other, and not just exist, but actually look around you and learn what’s around you and how it exists.”
Thirteen-year-old Samantha Lindholm of Gaylord said the explorer program is her favorite part of camping.
“We learn a lot, and I just like to help out at the programs, too,” she said. “It’s fun, and sometimes on the hikes we see wolf scat and it has a lot of stuff in it. It has berries, fur, all that.”
Coluccio loves watching the kids learn.
“They’re like little sponges and absorb information, and I just feel every day is such a reward,” Coluccio said. “Their eyes light up when they smile.”
—8-18 Media
Editor’s Note: This story was written by Chelsea Parrish, fifteen, and Claire Smith, seventeen, with contributions from Emma Hohman, ten; Danielle Jahnke, nine, and Madeleine Kochis, nine.

Republic-Michigamme School holds its own with four-day week
To most students in kindergarten through twelfth grade, Sunday nights mean one thing—a scramble to finish homework because the school week starts the next morning.
But for the past three years, students and teachers in the Republic-Michigamme school district have been able to relax and enjoy their Sunday nights. That’s because they don’t go to school on Monday; they operate on a four-day school week. But it’s not for comfort and convenience. The shortened week keeps their school open.
Republic-Michigamme was the first district in the Upper Peninsula to operate under a four-day week. This year, Stephenson became the second. With budgets becoming tighter, more schools may follow suit.
The four-day week saves the Republic-Michigamme district $100,000 a year. The plan was implemented in 2003 under then superintendent Paul Price, who previously worked in Colorado where twenty-five percent of school districts were on a four-day week. Like Colorado districts, Republic-Michigamme covers a wide area—295 square miles. The elimination of a fifth day cuts the amount of money spent on gasoline and maintenance. It also reduces the time worked by support staff.
“Custodians, bus drivers, cooks, work less time here. They took a reduction in their salaries of twenty percent,” said Vicki Holsworth who is in her second year as superintendent/principal. Holsworth also teaches vocal music. She has been at the school since 1992 and has held positions as assistant principal and athletic director.
The district currently has 150 students in kindergarten through twelfth grades. Because of low numbers, second and third graders have classes together, as do fourth and fifth graders. That way, fewer teachers need to be hired, which cuts costs.
Before cuts were made and the four-day week was implemented, the district was in danger of having to close.
“We were looking at two or three years having to minimally close the high school,” Holsworth said. “We had lots of talks about how does that help to close the high school. It’s a K-twelve building and we’d still have to run buses. We were fearful that it would be the end of the school.”
Sixteen-year-old Republic-Michigamme junior Rebecca Shipe did not want her school to close.
“That’s been a big issue here because we don’t have very many kids,” she said. “I love it here. It’s really nice here. I like that you know everybody. You don’t have as much clique challenges here because you know everybody and you’re friends with a lot of people. I like that.”
Shipe prefers the four-day school week because it keeps her school open.
“And you have a longer weekend, of course,” she added. “I love that.”
Seventeen-year-old senior Katie Tonge said she uses the extra day off her to advantage.
“(You have) better time for appointments so you don’t have to take time out of school for appointments,” Tonge said. “Basketball, hanging out with friends. Homework is the big issue on Mondays, the day before we go back to schoolWhen the district was considering whether to change to a four-day week, community members had many questions. The district addressed those questions during community meetings held before the plan was put in place, Holsworth said.
“We really tried to do the research and think about those,” she said. “Then we’d come back in a couple weeks with another meeting and give them answers. So we felt like we covered all the bases.”
One such concern came from families who needed babysitters.
“A lot of parents were concerned about finding daycare for their kids on that Monday,” said kindergarten teacher Mindy Longton. “But they actually found out it was easier because they only had to do daycare one day a week instead of every day after school because by the time we’re finished and they get off the bus, the parents are usually home from work.”
Many of the older students, including Shipe, baby sit on their extra day off.
Another concern was the effect of longer school days on students. To maintain the number of state-mandated, in-class hours, each class period was lengthened. Now, class periods are eight minutes longer and school days are sixty-five minutes longer. Shipe sees this as a benefit.
“You’re in (class) longer, so you have more of a chance to get things done. The teachers have more time to take time with you and explain things,” she said.
Questions were also raised about younger kids being able to stay focused near the end of the school day. This was answered early in the first year, Holsworth said. She and other teachers discovered that the younger the kids are, the easier they adapt to change. Longton does center activities at the end of the day to keep her students independent and busy.
“A couple weeks into the school year they usually adjust to the long day,” she said. “They’re getting everything that they need in those four days. I do a lot of the math and reading in the morning, get that done while they’re fresh. In the afternoon we do a review with the centers, and review math and reading in the afternoon. That way they kind of catch up on the day that they missed by having it repeated at the end of the day.”
Another concern was the amount of homework that the older kids would receive. Teachers now give out less homework during the week, and a little more on weekends.
“It’s about the same,” Shipe said. “It didn’t change much at all.”
A perk of the four-day week is longer vacations.
“The week of Thanksgiving we come on that Monday and Tuesday, and then we’re off Wednesday through the next Monday, which is nice if you’re traveling. We do that for spring break too,” Holsworth said.
Holsworth said Republic-Michigamme teachers, many of whom live outside the district, generally enjoy being able to spend Saturdays and Sundays with their family, and then doing school-related work at home on Monday while their spouses are at work, or their kids are at school.
Longton likes it for an additional reason.
“I play,” she said. “I’m an active outdoor person, so I usually have a friend who has days off and we go out and do stuff, too.”
To gauge community support before the plan was implemented, the school sent a survey to parents, staff members and students in fourth grade and up. The response was that everyone was willing to try the four-day week. After the first year, another survey was sent out, and the response was extremely high to continue with the four-day week, Holsworth said.
The school’s enrollment has been consistent, which is good news for southwestern Marquette County, because the school building is an integral part of the small community, Holsworth said.
“When I have a concert, the gym is packed and standing-room only,” she said. “We have tremendous community support for band concerts, vocal concerts, plays, and anything that goes on here. We’ll have an open house this fall. Last year we had one and the gym was packed full of people. It’s kind of the hub of the community.”
—8-18 Media

Editor’s Note: This story was written by Kristin Dale, sixteen, and Andrew LaCombe, sixteen, with contributions from Aminda Johnson, eleven; Connor Remsburg, eleven, and Nick Terpening, eleven.

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