North American Odyssey

On Earth Day (April 22) of 2010 Dave Freeman and Amy Voytilla of the Wilderness Classroom Organization will begin a three year, 11,700 mile journey across North America by kayak, canoe, and dogsled. Their goal is to use their journey as a platform for gaining support and protection for North America’s waterways, and promote living “green and simple”.

Their odyssey begins by kayak on the Pacific Coast studying temperate rainforests and marine life of the Pacific Northwest, but this is just the first in a series of six stages on their quest to highlight North America's wildest places.

After kayaking 1,400 miles from Seattle, WA to Skagway, AK, the team will progress over the history-studded mountains in the footsteps of the Klondike Gold Rush, to the home of Inuit along the Arctic Ocean where polar bears roam. From the Arctic Ocean they will dogsled and canoe south through central Canada, kayak across the Great Lakes, then follow the annual whale migration past the salt marshes and sea turtles of the Atlantic Coast, finishing in the mangroves and coral reefs of the Florida Keys.(See route description for more details)

Through daily web updates, elementary and middle school students will learn alongside the explorers through www.wildernessclassroom.com and adults can follow their progress through this website www.NorthAmericanOdyssey.com.

About the Wilderness Classroom

The Wilderness Classroom started with a simple idea: to improve students' core academic skills and appreciation for the environment by introducing elementary and middle school students to the wonders of exploration and wilderness travel. Eight years and ten expeditions later, the Wilderness Classroom is a 501(c)3 that reaches over 1,600 teachers and 60,000 students around the globe. Our mission has never changed. We seek to instill a lifelong appreciation of the natural world while improving basic skills like reading, critical thinking, and communication by highlighting the joy of discovery.

Since it is usually unfeasible to load a classroom of 4th grade students onto a plane and fly them to remote locations, we use a combination of interactive internet-based learning tools on our website www.wildernessclassroom.com, teacher training, and live school programs to accomplish our mission. Throughout the North American Odyssey elementary and middle school students and teachers will interact with the expedition team through live chats, polls, email, and other interactive features of www.wildernessclassroom.com.