Students take learning to Lake Vesuvius

As part of the Iron Furnace Heritage Festival this weekend, approximately 624 fourth and fifth graders from Dawson-Bryant, Rock Hill, Chesapeake and Symmes Valley elementary schools spent their Friday morning at Lake Vesuvius participating in outdoor activities with an emphasis on interpreting the iron furnace era and environmental education.

The event, which featured 22 stations, was in partnership with the Wayne National Forest and the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce Bicentennial Committee.

Students were broken down into small groups and moved from station to station learning about a variety of things, from outdoor fire safety to fish that live in the region, to the importance of recycling. Some stations were geared toward history, as actors portrayed people from the past.

Participating in the event were the Lawrence County Historical Society, Rural Action, Elkins Creek Horse Club, Lawrence-Scioto Solid Waste Management District, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Live Healthy Appalachia and the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigations K-9 Unit.

Each fourth grader also received a pamphlet about the federal government’s “Every Kid in a Park” initiative, which gives free access to federal lands and waters for fourth graders and their guests for a year.

“We’ve been working on this for a little over three months,” Shirley Dyer, director of the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, said. “And this is a fun way for them to be able to get outdoors and learn.”