{"id":1314755,"date":"2019-09-18T14:30:12","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=987848"},"modified":"2019-09-18T14:30:12","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:30:12","slug":"rising-to-the-challenge-students-from-gvhs-turn-an-idea-into-a-positive-change-in-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/rising-to-the-challenge-students-from-gvhs-turn-an-idea-into-a-positive-change-in-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising to the Challenge: Students from GVHS turn an idea into a positive change in the community"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>

Sierra Keif , a junior at Grand Valley High School is pulled into place on the big swing during Tuesday\u2019s grand opening of the Grand Valley Challenge Course in Battlement Mesa.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-1<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Garfield District 16 and Parachute\/Battlement Mesa Park and Recreation District officials welcomed local residents, business owners and students as they turned out under threatening skies Tuesday to get the first look at the Grand Valley Challenge Course in Battlement Mesa.<\/p>\n

Garfield District 16 and Parachute\/Battlement Mesa Park and Recreation District officials welcomed local residents, business owners and students as they turned out under threatening skies Tuesday to get the first look at the Grand Valley Challenge Course in Battlement Mesa.<\/p>\n

From low-slung obstacles near the bark-covered ground to a soaring ropes course set high in the blue sky of the small western Colorado town, the new high and low ropes course offers new challenges for the community.<\/p>\n

Now that it\u2019s opened, trained staff will soon be guiding Garfield 16 students throughout the course, focusing on team and confidence building. The course will eventually be available for the broader community. <\/p>\n

The project two years in the making arose from an idea from District 16 Superintendent Brad Ray. <\/p>\n

\u201cOriginally Mr. Ray reached out with this crazy idea he had that might not work, and we kind of just went with it,\u201d Sierra Keif, a junior at Grand Valley High School, said.<\/p>\n

In fall 2017, 30 students accepted the call from Superintendent Ray to help plan, poll residents, apply for grants and pick a contractor to build a high and low ropes course in the Grand Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a lot of blind dedication: \u2018No matter what we run into I\u2019m going to keep pushing until it\u2019s a definite \u201cNo, it\u2019s not happening.\u201d\u2019 No matter what\u2019s going on I\u2019m making time for this. It was just one of those things you have to go all in or not at all,\u201d GVHS junior Tyler Miller said.<\/p>\n

Out of the 30 students that began the project, Keif and Miller were the only two that were able to stick with the project till the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust talking to the students (Keif and Miller) it\u2019s a sense of pride, it\u2019s amazing what they\u2019ve been able to accomplish and how much they really have learned from and gained from it, that\u2019s awesome,\u201d Ray said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what the course is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keif said she originally came into the project not being able to speak to people she didn\u2019t know, but through the many stages of the project she is able to freely talk with people she had just met.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel comfortable saying my opinions and giving input on how we can make the community better, and it\u2019s really nice,\u201d Keif said.<\/p>\n

Clint Whitley, Outdoor Education Coordinator for District 16, said the overall cost of the project came in at $210,000.<\/p>\n

Seventy percent of the cost was paid through a grant from the Garfield County Federal Mineral Lease District, while Garfield School District 16 and Parachute\/Battlement Mesa Park and Recreation District paid the other 30%.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just standing under it and looking up. It is such a surreal feeling because there were so many people that dropped off and quit. The temptation was very real throughout the entire project to give up and walk away, but now that it\u2019s done I couldn\u2019t be happier with the amount of effort they we put in,\u201d Miller said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIts been my goal as long as I\u2019ve been in school to try and get out and make a change. I didn\u2019t care what it was, as long as it was to make a change for the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

kmills@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/p>

Members of the Parachute and Battlement Mesa community check out the new High and low ropes course as Garfield District 16 shows off the Grand Valley Challenege Course during Tuesday grand opening in Battlement Mesa.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-2<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>

Sierra Keif , a junior at Grand Valley High School swings into the blue sky on big swing during Tuesday\u2019s grand opening of the Grand Valley Challenge Course in Battlement Mesa.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-3<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>

Jed Johnston, pastor at Grace Bible Church, and Nate Voorhees, from Grand Valley Fire, try to hold on as they lose their balance and fall on one of the ropes courses Tuesday.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-4<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>

Tyler ?, a junior at Grand Valley High School, tests out the high ropes course Tuesday afternoon in Battlement Mesa.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-5<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/p>

Clint Whitley, outdoor education coordinator with Garfield Dist. 16, talks about the key features of the Grand Valley Challenege Course.<\/strong>
GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-6<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sierra Keif , a junior at Grand Valley High School is pulled into place on the big swing during Tuesday\u2019s grand opening of the Grand Valley Challenge Course in Battlement Mesa.GVChallengeCourse-rct-091919-1 Garfield District 16 and Parachute\/Battlement Mesa Park and Recreation District officials welcomed local residents, business owners and students as they turned out under threatening […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314755","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 15:42:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}