By MIKE JAMES - The Independent
RUSH — All day Thursday under a crisp autumn sky, students at Ramey-Estep High School played Native American games, cooked apple butter, made scarecrows and munched caramel apples.
It was the annual harvest festival at the rural school for troubled youths, blending education, cultural activities and recreation like the fruit, sugar and spices in the apple butter — “all in one pot mixed together,” as Principal Ann Brewster put it.
A group of 11 teenage boys was putting the finishing touches on a grinning scarecrow dubbed “Rev,” knotting a black tie around the collar on its white shirt and smoothing the lapels on its dark suit.
Library assistant Deborah Stevens was overseeing the assembly but the students worked as a team to make the scarecrow.
Down in a field, more students were playing wolfpack, adapted from the game Native Americans modeled after the behavior of wolves in the wild.
The object of the game is for one set of players, the wolves, to bring down the other set of players, the prey, by throwing and hitting them with a ball.
It’s an exercise in teamwork, the boys said. “Wolves work as a pack,” explained Curell.
“They have to work together to survive,” added Cody.
“They learn to share the ball — the food,” said Michael.
Because they come from troubled backgrounds, some of them abused, and are referred to Ramey-Estep by state agencies, the boys only reveal their first names to visitors.
Learning the social structure of wolves is more than a science lesson, said science teacher Bryan Mattingly. It’s a lesson in human cooperation. “If wolves can take care of their own, why can’t we?”
Inside the school, still more students were packing boxes that will be care packages for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. The packages will include toiletries, snacks, pens, paper and other items, explained Jason. The students also are writing letters and decorating the packages and hope the soldiers will write back.
“We want to thank them for the things they do, saving lives and fighting for the country,” Jason said.
Students have been sending the packages for several years now, Brewster said, and often the soldiers do send notes back. Some of them, from previous mailings, are posted on a bulletin board.
In most of them the soldiers offer words of encouragement to youths whose lives have gone off track.
That’s a good thing, Brewster said. The students look up to the service people and treasure the notes. In most cases she copies the note for the board and leaves the original with the student.
Students stirring the apple butter kettle find out soon that commitment and persistence are ingredients as important as apples. Stirring the kettle is an all-day, all-the- time operation. The reward is they get to eat the apple butter later on, Brewster said.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.
