Winter OE Adventures!

After three years, the Winter OE program is finally back. This program is an excellent opportunity for students to experience the great outdoors. Whether it was up north in Algonquin Park or in Quebec and Costa Rica, each grade had a tailored program for their Winter OE experience. We thank our programming partners, ALIVE Outdoors, Perspectives, Snow Forest Adventures, Voyages of Discovery and Evolve Tours, as well as Greenwood staff, for being an integral part in making Winter OE a success.

Grade 7s spent the week at Camp Mini-Yo-We where students bonded over campfires, snowshoeing, skiing, tobogganing and many other winter activities. 

Grade 8s had a fun road trip to Ottawa and to Saint-Donat in Quebec. In Ottawa, students learned more about Canadian history at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian War Museum and Parliament Hill. In Saint-Donat, students enjoyed fun activities in an immersive French language learning environment.

Grade 9s were up at Medeba where they partook in winter activities as well as unique challenges such as a quinzee building, low ropes and ice climbing. 

Grade 10s spent time at Cedar Ridge Camp and also at Snow Forest Adventures. Snow Forest Adventures took students on an expedition into Algonquin Park, where they learned valuable winter outdoor skills, experienced traditional means of winter travel and worked together. 

Grade 11s went to Camp Wanakita which not only gave them the opportunity to enjoy many winter activities but also hone their leadership skills. As these soon-to-be Grade 12s will be leaders at Greenwood next year, these leadership workshops were incredibly beneficial for them as they consider what kind of leader they’ll be at school and in their community moving forwards.

Many Grade 12s travelled to Costa Rica where they learned to surf, to tree climb, to rappel down a waterfall and more. Students also spent time giving back to the community at a local school. There were plenty of hands-on cultural learning opportunities about the history of chocolate, traditional medicines, tortillas, salsa and Spanish. A few Grade 12s chose to stay in Toronto and participated in our community outreach program at New Circles Community Services. Learn more about the outreach programming here.