CANAAN, N.H. (WCAX) – It’s sugaring season and maple operations are at a full boil across the region, including a new sugarhouse in the Upper Valley where students run the show.
Students stoke the fire and prep buckets of sap as the smell of maple wafts in the air behind the Mascoma Valley Regional High School in Cannan, New Hampshire.
“I was really looking for a way to give back to the school and leave something behind,” said Thomas Clifford, a senior at the school who recruited two buddies to build a sugarhouse.
“The first day that we boiled, there was a ton of people here all day. There was probably like seven or eight classes from the middle school came over,” said senior Aidan Smith.
The seniors are picking up Extended Learning Opportunity credits, or ELOs, for graduation that allow students explore non-traditional studies.
“I have a really hard time focusing in class. So, if I’m looking at a smart board or if I have to take notes all day, I don’t really learn anything,” said senior Seth Peters.
“I think learning looks different for everybody,” said Jenn Fitzgerald, an environmental science at Mascoma who worked with the students to get a grant for the equipment. Most of the wood was donated and she say a local timber framer who doubles as the district’s IT guy helped the students cut and raise the structure. “This type of learning, where you are touching it, making memories, those are the things that are going to stick with you.”
The sugarhouse will now be built into the science curriculum at the school. And when it comes to making maple syrup, a lot of learning is involved, according to school resource officer Matt Bunten, who also helped out on the project. “From forestry all the way through to technology and marketing and sales, when you get to the bigger operations,” he said.
Maple operations are well known across the region and get fired up again every spring. “Waiting for that great run,” Clifford said.
And some things like learning just come naturally. “The real stuff is way better than the fake,” Smith said.
An official community dedication of the sugarhouse is in the works to celebrate the success of the project and no doubt reap some of its sweet rewards.