Skiing, Skating and 'Studio'

On March 1, students at the Copper Island Academy spent the day outdoors celebrating Laskiainen, a sliding festival with Finnish origins. Principal Steve Aho said the students arranged the events of the day, which included sledding, skiing a snow sculpture contest, a 3v3 hockey tournament, and more.

Young students at Copper Island Academy practice ice skating on Laskiainen while parents and teachers watch.

While reporting on the celebration, I had the opportunity to sit down with Director Nora Laho and Principal Steve Aho to talk about the foundation of their new K-8 charter school.

The school currently has just over 300 students enrolled and sits on a 24-acre property off Airpark Boulevard.

The following transcript has been edited for length and readability. Responses have been fact-checked against the Charter School FAQ Document from the Michigan Department of Education.

J. Vissers: How is Copper Island Academy funded, and how is that different from a public school?

Steve Aho: It's not different. It is a public school. I mean — So the wording we often use is it's not a traditional public school. So it's a charter school. But our funding comes from the same per-pupil funding that every other public school in the area utilizes.

We actually have, maybe you could say some more challenges with them. Because, unlike the standard community schools, we can't vote for a referendum to support our facilities.

J. Vissers: So no millage?

Steve Aho: Correct. So we have to take into account all of that, from that per-pupil funding base, which — especially in the initial phases — for us has been much more of a challenge. There's no doubt that makes it hard. So we do rely on a lot of grant opportunities. I mean, that's one of the things that Nora really enjoys doing is looking for… and chasing down money. And that's something that we'll have to continue to rely on. But yeah, we operate on the same money that every other public school does.

The CIA skating rink has been available to students all winter. Each hour of the day, their students spend 15 minutes outside.

J. Vissers: Tuition?

Steve Aho: Nope, tuition-free.

Nora Laho: We cannot charge tuition.

Steve Aho: As a charter school we can’t. And that's kind of some of those misconceptions that are out there. In our open enrollment, as long as we have the availability — the capacity if you want to call it that — the room, in a classroom and our buildings, to take kids in during enrollment periods anybody is eligible to enroll. … It's a public school where anybody could choose to attend, should they think it's the right fit for them.

J. Vissers: Can you fundraise?

Steve Aho: Absolutely. We have kind of that initial phase for us getting going because we're still brand new, right? And we have a foundation already set up and very solid; a large group of people who were very instrumental in that initial phase of getting everything up and going and then hiring on Nora and myself when we were trying to put everything together and develop it and become authorized to actually have a school... So they were involved at that point. And they have now transitioned into that foundation that will work to support the school. And they're looking at doing their own level of fundraising.

They continually help support us, even on a daily basis right now. You know, transportation has been huge. That's a budgetary component, that — it's very difficult. And for us, we have students from, you know, north of Mohawk to Baraga to Chassell, to out in Stanton Township, and we can't possibly run buses… So our foundation has helped support some level of busing for us even, just to do main trunk line pickups.

Copper Island Academy’s mandatory budget and finance reporting

A few students take advantage of ski trails in the woods just south of the school.

J. Vissers: This is your first school year, how have things been going so far?

Steve Aho: Nora and I keep saying that, hopefully, we kind of see it level off … everything is new. Every day is an adventure. Every day, new procedures, new expectations, everything is new, right? The entire year. So we have all of that. With that being said… So there have been some hurdles and you know, whether it's financial or staffing — everybody in education is struggling with staffing right now —where we've been very blessed to have numerous people interested in jobs but to put everything together was a challenge.

But we have kids and families who have been very, very happy. I think for us the telltale sign — We just went through what we call the re-enrollment period. We had a two-week window to re-enroll; ‘Are you planning to come back next year?’ 98.7[%], I think was the number, re-enrolled. The number one, and almost the sole cause of somebody saying they didn't want to re-enroll was transportation.

Copper Island Academy’s Laskiainen celebration included a student snow sculpture contest judged by MTU students in the Phi Kappa Tau greek organization.

So, when you ask how has it been going? Like we would, we'd love to say, yeah, it's been going well, we have a lot of joy, a lot of really good things going on, you know, and we could talk at length about just the model and what's different. But the re-enrollment, I think speaks volumes to that. You know, and we're in an open enrollment period now where anybody else who was not enrolled currently can sign up and we have a healthy number of kindergarten, and other grades starting to fill up of people saying, ‘Yeah, we're interested, we would love to enroll next year’.

[Open enrollment has ended since this interview was recorded]

Nora Laho: And as long as there’s still capacity, anyone can enroll after the open enrollment window. At that point, it becomes first come first serve. So otherwise, during that open enrollment period, if it exceeds capacity, all of those names go into a random selection drawing, essentially. So we can't pick and choose who comes in.

J. Vissers: What is your experience running schools, and how did you come into these positions?

Steve Aho (with a chuckle): Were newbies.

Nora Laho, to Steve: You've had quite a bit of experience.

Steve Aho: I've had experience in schools. I've been a teacher for 20-plus years in special education and elementary education, primarily. I was an athletic director in Hancock schools for a few years. I was then — two years prior to coming here I was the Hancock middle school principal. I did not go to school to be a school administrator, but I took my certification classes on the job. While I was at Hancock I was working on it and right when I got hired here, I finished that up. So very new to the realm.

One of the big reasons I was hired was because of my interest in… the Finnish education model. I've done some study with that. I worked at South Range Elementary school, we created a program called ‘Hey, Suomi’, where we had two students from the University of Lapland, staying at Finlandia University in the dorms, but then teaching for an hour and a half a day in my third-grade classroom at South Range Elementary and tying it into local history and the mines and the immigrants from Finland coming to the area, and just learning Finnish language culture and everything about why we see some of the things we see in the area today. And it was their — those students from Finland — it was their teacher training. So I was their cooperating teacher as they went through their [training] to become teachers. So that was one of the things. I'm also involved with the Finnish Council of North America through Finlandia University… So that was kind of my background to this group saying, ‘Hey, would you be interested in helping support what we're doing here?’ … Nora can talk about her experience.

Students helped each other up the snow drifts surrounding the parking lot before taking the steep plunge down the hills.

Nora Laho: I started out teaching out west, we taught out west for about eight years, and I did some instructional coaching…

J. Vissers: I’m going to need you to be more specific than ‘out west’.

Nora Laho: Wyoming, southwest corner of Wyoming in a town called Mountain View. After coming back here, I taught and did some technology coaching and then was most recently technology coordinator at CLK and I kind of fell into this job through being involved in the very early stages with helping shape the model that came from the needs assessment and the community input into driving what the school became.

J. Vissers: Can you tell me a little bit more about that needs assessment?

Nora Laho: Sure. We, starting in about August of 2020… there were a lot of community meetings. And in those meetings, the biggest questions were what are your unmet needs? What are the local schools, maybe not doing that you would like to see in an education model for your kids? And so we had hundreds of parents, community members, business owners, business leaders in the area, kind of providing input into that process. And then we took that information and started digging into models. There are a lot of different charter school models, education models out there. And so we explored a bunch of them and what we found to be the best fit, and also aligned with our community was the Finnish model of education. So we didn't just randomly select it, it actually came from a pretty in-depth process.

J. Vissers: Who leads the school?

Nora Laho: There’s a lot of oversight.

Steve Aho: A lot of people don't realize that we actually have additional oversight on top of what every other school around here, experiences. You know, so for us to become an entity, we had to become authorized as a charter school. So Central Michigan University took on that role. There was a daunting application process. To prove that; here's who we are, here's what we're going to do, here's how we're going to assess, here's how we're going to show that we're capable — everything from facilities to students to staffing to curriculum, everything. So they have that direct oversight of that link to the Michigan Department of Ed. We also have a management company that we are working with, and they run essentially our back-office; human resources, payroll, budgeting. They support our administration. So with learning and administrative support, so they're in all of those

J. Vissers: Mind if I ask who that is?

Steve Aho: Yeah, CS Partners. CS Partners out of Brighton, Michigan.

Nora Laho: So we have many layers of oversight. MDE, CMU, and then more closely, CS Partners.

Steve Aho: And then even our local ISD is involved with us as they are every other school around here…

J. Vissers: And then you have a local board too, a school board?

Steve Aho: Correct. And so one difference in the board is they're appointed versus elected. They go through an interview process through Central Michigan University. So CMU does a vetting process on potential board members. And they have a term limit.

The Copper Island Academy’s Laskiainen Cup, to go to the winner of the 3v3 hockey tournament.

J. Vissers: Word is you’re considering the addition of a high school already?

Steve Aho: Not now. We need to get established.

So it depends who you talk to. If you're asking us, are those thoughts there? Yeah, they are. Are we planning a high school right now? No, in the sense that we can't feasibly do it. That and I've said many times, that'll be community-driven. Like our families, etc. — If they want it to happen, and the support is there for it, whether it's financially, the students, et cetera, then down the road that feasibly could — I mean, we've started thinking that long-range three to five-year plan for us as an entity, and are those thoughts there? And yeah, they are, but we do not have the plans to put up another building and it's been just a whirlwind process already.

J. Vissers: You’d need another building, this one looks full.

Steve Aho: It doesn’t look, it is full. We are busting at the gills. It’s very full.

J. Vissers: What’s your student-to-teacher ratio?

Nora Laho: Our goal is to keep it to 20 students in a classroom or less with one teacher. So right now we are doing that K through 6. Seventh and eighth grade, we did set our capacity a little bit higher knowing we were only going to do one section of seventh and one section of eighth this year. So we have 25 and 27.

A 3v3 hockey game in progress.

J. Vissers: About your curriculum. How is it different? How do you choose it?

Nora Laho: In terms of the curriculum and the material resources we're using, we're using all resources that are from the US just because of, you know, translation issues and things like that. State standards — we do have to align with state standards. So we went through a process with parents, local teachers, and we kind of vetted different curricula that kind of met some of the key pieces of our model. So we really focus on experiential learning hands-on learning, getting kids outside, collaboration, cooperation. What else?

Steve Aho: The ability to differentiate and meet individual needs.

Nora Laho: Rich literature was a key part of what parents were seeking and making sure the kids are immersed in good books throughout the subjects.

Steve Aho: There's kind of two sides to this. The actual curriculum that we're using, we went through this process. And there are certain things we have to abide by, we tried to find the best fits for us. But where I see the differences is in the delivery of that model, and how are we servicing the kids and utilizing that curriculum that we chose to teach? So in conjunction with that Finnish model, a couple of the key things that we're doing, we're really focusing on those hands-on activities and the outdoor education. We're also focusing on allowing kids to have that time to have an unstructured play and creative play.

So one of the big things we do is 45 minutes of class 15 minutes of “brain break” outside recess time, all day long. And so kids are getting outside every hour of the day. And we really focused on those transition times to minimize, you know, wasted time. Just expectations of ‘boom, get ready, get out’. And as soon as that time is done, get back in, you know, and there are numerous studies have just shown that students are more on task, they have less behavior problems, they're able to gain and retain information better when they have that ability to play and get outside. And that's something that Finns do really well.

Abraham, a 4th grader at Copper Island Academy, took a break from the Laskiainen festivities to feed and care for the chickens his class is stewarding. Principal Aho said when a dozen eggs were collected, members of the staff purchase them from the class. The coop contains 5 egg-laying hens and a rooster.

So some of those things, you know, what we call our studio component is really that hands-on, kind of focusing on three main areas. One is woodworking, another is textile and then another is culinary and gardening. So we actually have a teacher that is working with kids in each of those areas. And they're going through and experiencing things that they may not be getting at young ages in other schools. You know, it's becoming more of a focus on the career tech, but it's often not until the older ages, upper high school at best. And we're really trying to start at kindergarten. Kids need to be doing some of these things and experiencing them and learning. And those are the things that some of these business leaders that we talked about before and community members have said we're missing, that's not out there. So we're focusing on that.

Nora Laho: And a lot of our decision making is — we prioritize student independence and student problem solving and really making them think for themselves. And in Studio, I think that's really, really evident. In her teaching style, the projects are doing things like that. But even in day-to-day classroom activities, teachers have that as kind of their mind that that's something we're always pushing for.

J. Vissers: How frequently do these Studio classes happen?

Nora Laho: Not enough right now, because of how many kids we have and how we only have the one teacher, one space right now. So once a week, sometimes twice a week, depending. And then yeah, so the goal would be to be at least two times per week. In Finland, they call it craft education, which we didn't feel was necessarily — that sounds ‘arts and crafts’ kind of and it’s not what it is.

A wheelchair ramp up to the playground toys, currently partly buried in snow. Principal Aho said 3rd-grade students designed and built the project. The 7th and 8th grade classes are also collaborating on a yurt project.

J. Vissers: How do you think the COVID-19 pandemic has affected your school? Do you think it brought support or held you back? How have you navigated it during your first school year?

Steve Aho: Both ways. I mean, obviously, there's extreme challenges all over with it. So one of the things that that we've really tried to do is allow people to make personal decisions. We've had people get sick, etc. But we've tried to operate — one of the frustrations parents had was the in school, out of school, in school out of school, you know, whether it was school shutting down, or quarantines or whatever, and just that whole realm of not knowing what's coming, and all of that. Okay, so those were pieces, like — it's hard on kids. So we've tried to focus on the kids and retain everything as close to normal as we possibly can, within the realm of what's going on.

So we've done the cleaning, we've done, you know, had extra hand sanitizers and all those things available. But we've really tried to, and for the most part have been able to, operate somewhat normally.

So for us, it's only been since September. So we weren't in operation last year right when there was much more going on, from a school standpoint. So I don't know how it would have been, then. And really, it's gone, I would say, remarkably well. You know, we've had some kids sick, but we don't always know what they're sick with.

Copper Island Academy’s mandatory COVID-19 reporting

J. Vissers: So have you had any masking policies?

Steve Aho: No mandatory. We've had a few people in here wearing masks. We've had no mandatory policy from us that you need to do it. We've left that to personal choice.

A Laskiaispulla made by students. It’s a traditional Finnish dessert for Laskiainen day.

While walking the school grounds, I stopped and met Joel Keranen, the vice president of Copper Island Academy’s board. He said it was amazing how motivated his kids are to go to school since joining Copper Island Academy.

“They don’t want to stay home from school [when sick]”, Keranen said.

He said he’d happily compare their school’s standardized test scores against any of the local traditional public schools. He joined the school’s leadership out of a desire to do something different than the other local schools.

Students made and sold the laskiaispulla for $1 throughout the day.

Keranen said there were 15-20 families that came together to “put their money where their mouth is” and try a new method of education. He said he thinks their efforts will help drive change in local public schools, too.

Kayla Seppala is the mother of four boys attending Copper Island Academy. After homeschooling during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she said she liked the alternative style of the school and more outdoor time for her boys. She said the frequent “brain breaks” let them use their abundant energy.

Living in Oskar, she said transportation to and from the school is hard, so she’s very grateful for the morning bus that’s available thanks to the school foundation.

“I can handle the afternoon,” Seppala said.

Serious snow, serious tools

Snow is a reality everyone living in the Upper Peninsula deals with in some way or another. For public streets and sidewalks, however, city employees have to go well beyond using a “yooper scooper” to keep people safe and traffic moving through the winter.

One of Hancock’s salt trucks heads out of the garage to make daytime rounds of the city streets. Each of the sanders can hold up to 9 tons of sand or salt.

John Erickson recently became Hancock’s new director of the Department of Public Works. He previously worked for the Houghton County Road Commission for more than 20 years and graduated from Houghton High School. He’s now lived in Hancock for more than 27 years.

“I jumped ship,” he said with a laugh.

During the winter, he manages a team of nine unionized full-time employees and two part-time employees to clear the snow in the city. The crew works regular shifts from 11:30 p.m. to 7:30 a.m. clearing the snow, longer if the snowfall requires it. During the day, they keep one of the sander trucks on the road until about 9 p.m. The same drivers that work through the night are also on call for weekend sanding shifts.

“So sometimes they could be here for 12, 13, 14 hours before they can go home,” Erickson said.

The drivers are assigned routes in the city, and the schedule stays flexible to make sure plows are on the road when they need to be.

When they use a snowblower attachment on the front end loaders, they blow the snow into a dump truck and haul it to a snow dump near the Houghton County Fairgrounds. Before they can clear the main streets in Hancock—Quincy and Hancock Streets, North Lincoln Drive, and any other stretch of road that is part of US-41—the city has to get permission from the Michigan Department of Transportation.

“It’s one phone call,” Erickson said. “Usually if a snowbank is two feet or higher they’ll let us do it.”

The grader blades are regularly replaced, as they grind down from use on the roads. They start with fresh yellow paint, and by the time they are removed, the paint is scraped clean and the width of the blade is more than halved. The blade in the inset picture is upside down, displaying the ground-down “cutting edge” after it has been used.

When a storm is expected, like midway through this week, the full-time employees already know they’ll be coming in, but Erickson does have to call in the part-timers, who mainly work when there is extra snow to clear.

This year, the DPW has had some help clearing the city sidewalks, too.

Ariens Co, based in Wisconsin, has been testing attachments for their Mammoth 850 tractors in an arrangement with the city of Hancock.

Douglas Kortbein, Senior COE Manager at Ariens, runs the testing program for their snow equipment in the Keweenaw area, and for their lawncare equipment in Sebring, Florida. He said they’ve been expanding their snow-testing program recently to make it more true to what people are using the machines for.

“People tend to use the machines when there’s a big snow,” Kortbein said.

The Keweenaw area is one of the few places in the United States where heavy snow falls consistently, which is why Ariens tests here.

“Plus, it’s just good people,” he said.

Kortbein is originally from Wisconsin and said he didn’t really get the local idea of “sisu” until he moved here.

“When you have this much snow all the time, you have to have that attitude,” he said.

Ariens is testing a power broom, salt and sand spreader, a plow blade, and a brine spray unit for the Mammoth 850, mainly along Quincy and Hancock Streets.

“This is the end of about two years of testing on the tractor,” Kortbein said.

The tractor and power broom have also been tested in Florida to make sure they can withstand warm weather as well as cold. The Mammoth has a 4-wheel hydraulic drive, with skid-style steering controlled with two levers (with heated hand grips).

“They’ll spin right on their own center-point, they’re pretty maneuverable,” Kortbein said. “You get great traction for pushing snow.”

Ariens has a regular line of snowblowers, but the benefit of the Mammoth is its changeable attachments that allow for different applications.

“It’s a four-season, multi-purpose piece of equipment,” Kortbein said.

Kortbein admitted he has hopes the city of Hancock might be a future customer, but the current sidewalk work Ariens is doing comes at no cost or obligation from the city. Ariens pays the drivers and supplements the snow removal the DPW is already doing for the benefit of their product testing program.

“We really appreciate the support of the community, working with the city of Hancock, and people in the area have shown great support,” he said.

Erickson said he thinks the Mammoth 850 machines are doing a good job but doesn’t think his drivers will want to switch from the sidewalk machines they already have until there is an enclosed cab available for the Mammoth.

Kortbein was non-committal about whether an enclosure attachment was in development for the Mammoth.

“That would sure be a nice accessory to have,” he said.

As winter continues, Erickson asked that people have patience with plow drivers and remember that breakdowns, stuck vehicles, and other issues happen to everyone, including them.

Erickson said the 25,000-pound dump trucks get stuck pretty regularly, and they send a front-end loader or a grader to pull them clear. The graders weigh around 45,000 pounds, according to Erickson. The blades on them are 14 feet long, and a wing adds another 12 feet.

The city’s three front-end loaders lined up in the garage. The oldest of sports the classic DPW logo and a little rust as signs of its age (The 938G Series II stopped production in 2008). It weighs over 14 tons (28,000 pounds). The newest, in the center, is rust-free and weighs in at 35,778 pounds, according to statistics on CAT’s website.

During the day, the DPW mechanic maintains the vehicles and keeps them ready for plowing at night, and an assistant mechanic is on call at night if something breaks.

“Have patience with us if we’re not there every day at the same time,” Erickson said.

Running wild

Carved wooden spoons and art made by the students on the island.

During August this year, several local high school students traveled to Rabbit Island. The island is in the Keweenaw Bay, just south of Little Traverse Bay, and at only 91 acres, the entire, uninhabited island could fit inside of McLain State Park more than four times.

The Rabbit Island Foundation runs a residency program on the island to host artists, scientists, and conservationists on the island, but each year they also host a week-long program called the Rabbit Island School for high school students to engage closely with nature, too. Andrew Ranville, one of the foundation’s cofounders and a mentor to the students while they’re on the island, said that the program is important because it gives students an opportunity to explore nature and their interests in ways they may not otherwise get in school or at home.

Nicole “Snugs” Thyrion (left) stands next to Claudia Torrey (right) while sharing her experience in front of photos taken during the week on Rabbit Island.

Thursday, the students gathered in the Portage Lake District Library’s community room to share their experiences with friends, family, and the public.

Nicole Thyrion, one of this year’s participating students, earned the island name “Snugs” early in the week. Each person, including the mentors, was given such a nickname during their outing according to their actions or personality. Thyrion was observed snuggled up early in the trip and was thus the first to earn her island name.

Each of the students applied as much as a year in advance to take part in the program. The application process can be competitive and includes an essay portion and a letter of recommendation. Thyrion applied for the 2020 program, but that year was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, the 2021 program was able to proceed.

Photo courtesy of the Rabbit Island Foundation

Thyrion said a lot of what she took back from the island was about self-image.

“I was really self-conscious about, like, how I look and everything,” she said. “On the island, you didn’t have any mirrors.”

The students also left electronics like phones and laptops behind, so there were no cameras for selfies, either. Thyrion also said that her perception of time changed.

“I kind of realized that time doesn’t really matter,” she said.

She said she used to track how much sleep she would get each night, “but on the island, I just slept… when I woke up was when I woke up.”

The first couple of nights, Thryion and another student stayed in a tent in the woods, but when they returned to it one day, it was “infested” with spiders. Then she stayed in a hammock hung near the shore of the island. The students also slept on the rocks by the shore.

Being on the island, Thyrion said that she noticed how social stratification melted away.

“It didn’t matter, like your social status, your school status, any of that,” she said. “On the island, it was just us.”

The communal shelter where the students made and ate meals and gathered for other activities. Photo courtesy of the Rabbit Island Foundation.

Rain “Mudpup” Isaksson particularly enjoyed the spoon carving activity that they learned on the island. Pieces of wood are selected, shaved down with a hatchet, and then carved out with a selection of tools before being sanded smooth.

“Mudpup” earned their name because of how much they enjoyed working and playing in the mud they found on the island. They used it to make various ornaments and objects. And to throw at each other.

When they returned, Isaksson said they was struck by the ever-present noise.

“There were like five TVs, and then all the people walking around,” Isaksson said. “On the island, there was just like, the birds, the wind, and the waves.”

Rain “Mudpup” Isaksson passes what they learned on the island about spoon carving to a young attendee of Thursday night’s presentation.

“Snugs” and “Mudpup” worked together to make sweet potato chili, one of their favorite meals from the trip. They also cooked fresh-caught lake trout over the fire and made popcorn sweetened with maple syrup.

Ryan “Turtle” Dixon took the week on the island as an opportunity to pursue something he’d wanted to for some time—photography. One of the few pieces of electronics they had on the island was a digital Nikon camera that he was able to pick up and use extensively for the first time.

“I learned pretty much everything I know from my experience on the island,” Dixon said.

He said he learned about aperture, ISO, and more on the island and came away from it with some photos that he’s proud of. He spent a lot of time walking around the island and circled it about three times, he said.

Ryan “Turtle” Dixon in front of some of the landscape photos he took on the island. He earned his island name for bringing a lot of turtleneck shirts to the island in his wardrobe.

Ranville, who earned the island name “Bingo” while playing Scrabble with the students on the island, does what he can to let the students lead their own time on the island.

“So we don’t try to be too prescriptive with the mentors offering certain workshops or classes or anything like that,” he said.

The mentors introduce themselves to the students, explain their expertise in art and creative practices, and then try to “tap into what the students want to explore on the island,” Ranville said.

The sweet potato chili they made on the island. Photo courtesy of the Rabbit Island Foundation.

He said he feels lucky to share the island with the students because each time he gets to experience the island with fresh eyes through them.

“It really just opens my eyes to like, the space in a whole new way, and that kind of gives me a fresh perspective,” Ranville said.

Other students attending this year’s Rabbit Island School included Autumn Eles, Kathryn Fay, Makayla Knuutila, and Claudia Torrey. A full list of Rabbit Island alumni can be found on their website.

Supporting partners in the Rabbit Island School are the Portage Lake District Library, Regrid, and the Rabbit Island Foundation has additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Left to right, mentor Andrew “Bingo” Ranville, with the students who participated in the 2021 Rabbit Island School, “Snacks”, “Mudpup”, “Ace”, “Snugs”, “Wellies”, “Scribbles”, and “Turtle”.

Photo courtesy of the Rabbit Island Foundation

Video games in school

(Near to far) Matthew Monette, Dominic Barrette, John Holladay, and Katelyn Palesiewicz, members of the Finlandia University Valorant team, practicing on Thursday night.

What are Esports?

“Esports is a massive umbrella,” said Lincoln Sorensen, the Esports Head Coach at Finlandia University.

In short, esports are organized competitive video games. Universities, high schools, and even middle schools around the world have been adding school-linked teams at a rapid pace recently, but the games themselves remain a mystery to many people.

Esports encompasses several different video games with wildly different gameplay, and each game is hosted in multiple leagues, too.

“Last year, we were part of a league called the ECAC,” Sorensen said. “And now we’re moving into being part of an esports league called the NECC this year.”

Michigan Technological University’s esports team, directed by Kaitlyn Roose, varyingly participates in NACE, UGC, ESEA, CEA, NECC, MEC, and a number of game-specific leagues.

“NACE is the big one,” Roose said. “They’re like the NCAA of esports… And we’re actually the Counter-Strike champions from last year.”

Leagues might offer different games and participating schools, and the teams choose what leagues to participate in based on what games players want to play and who they can play competitively against.

MTU’s Counter-Strike trophy from last year’s national NACE championship.

This semester Finlandia is playing Valorant and Rocket League. Next semester they’ll be adding Overwatch and Apex Legends. MTU has players engaged in Rainbow Six Siege, Rocket League, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Overwatch.

Most video games in collegiate-level esports are team-oriented, with goals that can only be accomplished with teammates fulfilling different roles.

“You can have a really strong player mechanically, but if the team around them either doesn’t work together or are all doing different things or have different priorities, it’s going to be difficult to win,” Roose said.

Dillion Farmer is a senior at Finlandia University. He played lacrosse, hockey, football, and wrestled in high school and college before coming to Hancock, where he joined the esports team. On the Valorant team, he plays the role of a duelist.

“A duelist is someone on the team who is going to seek out engagements against the other team,” Farmer said. “Try to get kills and create space for your team.”

Other roles include the controller, the initiator, and the sentinel, and each role has different characters that are selectable, with special equipment and abilities suited to that role. Players choose their character based on their own play style and what role their team needs to be filled.

Dillion Farmer prepares to join his team in their Valorant practice.

How are they different than other sports?

“There really aren’t a ton of differences,” Roose said.

Roose recruits her players similar to a coach would for any other sport.

“The main difference is I don’t need to see them in person to assess their skill,” Roose said.

Both Finlandia and Michigan Tech follow NCAA rules for team activity, despite not being an official part of the NCAA. Teams are allowed no more than twenty hours a week of team activity like practices, workouts, and games. There are also GPA standards for participation.

Another key difference that may not be apparent is the level of team communication involved.

“Communication happens on a very specific, articulate, concise level within esports,” Sorensen said.

In traditional sports, communication between teammates is often short, barked directions that can also be heard by opposing players. But communication in esports is through private headset channels between teammates in the game, so directions and strategies can be plainly spoken and easily heard.

“I can whisper something to you and you’re going to hear it,” Farmer said.

This lets team leaders clearly spell out strategies and key information, which allows for tight execution of plans and complex adjustments mid-game to take advantage of lapses in the other team’s strategy.

John Holladay, behind one of Finlandia’s custom computer cases.

Roose said teams will have a “strat book” with their team strategies in it, similar to a football team’s playbook.

“So maybe it’s where to put a smoke [smoke grenade], which LOS—lines of sight—or angles to hold, who specifically is holding those angles, where specifically they are moving (and) at what point…” Roose said.

While some teams do have specialized coaches, Roose doesn’t work directly with her teams, and Sorensen doesn’t drill with his teams, either.

“There’s a big difference between what I do and what a traditional coach does,” Sorensen said.

While Sorensen has played many video games extensively, he isn’t an expert in the newer games offered in his program, and those games can change from semester to semester, too. Unlike traditional games, video games can release updates that teams then have to learn and adapt to as well.

So when Sorensen is coaching his teams, it’s more about interpersonal communication, decision making, and mental fortitude. Mechanics and game skills are left more to the individual player.

Before a match, they’ll watch the previously recorded matches of their opponent to find out how they play and what strategies their team might want to practice to counter them.

There’s also an entirely new competitive season of esports each semester.

“So we will have an entire competitive season this fall, and we will have an entirely new, fresh, clean start next spring as well,” Sorensen said.

Esports is also a little more flexible than traditional sports in scheduling, as the majority of their matches require no travel for any of the participants and weather isn’t much of an issue since everyone plays inside.

“All we need is to be in our space with them in their space at the same time,” Sorensen said.

Sorensen said this was an advantage over other sports during the pandemic lockdowns last year, as their season was able to continue through the 2020-2021 school year mostly uninterrupted. Roose said that not having to travel saves the teams a big expense and keeps the players from being pulled out of class very often.

Teams do still travel from time to time for special LAN (local area network) events. MTU’s team went to Northern Michigan University for a special Halloween LAN this week and Hancock’s high school team may attend one in the Detroit area.

“It’s a networking experience for coaches, for players, and it just gives you that face time,” Roose said.

John Holladay recently graduated from Hancock High School and now plays for the Finlandia University Esports team, streams from their media booth (seen here), and coaches the Hancock High School Esports team.

What good are esports for students?

Perhaps the first question on parents’ lips would be if there are scholarships available for engaging in esports, and the answer is yes.

At Finlandia University, there are two scholarships available, $500 a semester for team members who keep their GPA above a 2.5, and $1,000 per semester if they keep their GPA above a 3.0. However, these scholarships are only available for students who aren’t also participating in NCAA sports.

At MTU, students can get as much as $10,000 in athletic scholarships for participation on the esports team. Roose said combined with other academic and need-based aid, some students have their tuition entirely paid for.

But there is also the development of important skills at work in esports.

Sorensen said that because of the closeness of the communication, being mindful about how directions, information, and strategy is shared is one of the key things he works on teaching his players.

“Communicating a message that you want someone to understand and apply in a positive way is one of the greatest takeaways that we can get from this gaming space,” he said.

Roose, who is also a Ph.D. student in MTU’s Cognitive and Learning Sciences Department, has studied communication and decision making in video games as well as other situations.

“They’re learning how to communicate not only effectively but also with different types of people,” she said.

Kaitlyn Roose, in the conference room overlooking the MTU esports arena.

Roose said that clear communication feeds into conflict management and leadership development.

Sorensen said he trains his students with an eye on their future careers.

“I really think that the best gamer they can be is one with the best head on their shoulders,” Sorensen said. “So that’s what I’m trying to provide them—it’s not individual skill at a video game but the aptitude to communicate and interact no matter what video game or pursuit they have in life.”

Players like Farmer, who has participated in more traditional athletics, know there is a lot of crossover in lessons from one sport to another, and esports.

“There’s a lot of lessons that you learn that aren’t necessarily just for that sport,” Farmer said.

Lessons of competition like how to stay in a losing game or accept defeat with grace can be learned in esports just as much as they are in football, basketball, or hockey.

“I’m a nursing major,” Farmer said. “So eventually I’m pursuing a career in nursing and then possibly beyond that.”

He did say he might be interested in coaching esports as a part-time job somewhere, though.

“The same way someone with a day job may coach football because they played at a higher level,” he said.

There’s also a beneficial social atmosphere that can be hard to attain for people who enjoy indoor activities.

John Holladay, who plays Valorant for Finlandia University, said he’s appreciated having a community to interact with. He said it is often a struggle for him to find people to play video games with.

“There are a lot of people that I never would have met if I didn’t join esports,” he said.

Esports can be much more inclusive of people with physical disabilities, too. Controls can be adapted so people with poor motor skills or even absent limbs can participate competitively.

Other students who aren’t playing competitively also help with streaming the matches, maintaining the computers, graphic design, and other work in the “esports ecosystem” where they can gain valuable experience in broadly applicable skills.

MTU’s esports department has a dedicated media team with positions for social media management, on-screen esports casters, and audio engineering, as well as an IT manager who handles network and computer maintenance.

“It’s really important that it’s student-run,” Roose said. “The students need the hands-on experience, especially with tech.”

Roose also does her best to make sure her coaches and student workers are fairly paid.

Max Reisterer plays on MTU’s Rocket League team. He took his gamertag—the name players are known by in-game—partially from his birthday, Sept. 9, 1999. “So I love the number 9, and then I like ninjas, so I just smashed them together. We got Nineja,” he said.

Where’s the science?

Roose’s master’s thesis focused on the development and use of the Tracer Method, which combined eye-tracking technology with player interviews after a game session to analyze decision-making under stressful situations and what factors go into the decision-making process.

The method creates quantitative data to an otherwise subjective process.

Roose’s advisor at MTU is Elizabeth Veinott, a cognitive psychologist who directs MTU’s Center for Human-Centered Computing. Her work focuses on how people make decisions in different environments.

“I study real people doing real work,” Veinott said. “Esports is one of the domains I study.”

Within esports, the two try to determine what the difference between decisions made by novice players and expert players is, and how to teach people to make better decisions using that information.

The Tracer Method tracks a player’s eyes while they play a match. After the match, a researcher will interview the player about the moments in the game where they were considering a critical decision.

“Typically, there are only a couple,” Veinott said.

The researchers can then sync up the video of when the decision was being made to the eye-tracking data to find out what information the player was drawing from when making their critical choices.

Normally, in games like Overwatch, the player spends most of their time looking at or near the aiming reticle in the center of the screen.

“When they’re doing sensemaking decisions they’re spending a lot of time looking at their charge and their ammo and their health,” Veinott said.

Taking a high-paced game like Overwatch and analyzing the critical decisions of many players in many games starts to reveal what sensemaking decisions entail in a quantitative way. They’ve found that experts tend to have similar eye movements when making critical decisions.

“This tells us that there is something to train,” Veinott said.

The Tracer Method is still in development, but Veinott is hopeful it will have applications in other environments, like debugging computer code.

“But we’re developing in the context of video games,” she said.

In other studies, Veinott has found that playing problem-solving-focused video games can help people with problem-solving exercises against a control situation of someone watching a video for an equal amount of time.

People who regularly played video games didn’t show an improvement, but not because they were worse.

“The gamers kind of brought it to the table, they didn’t need a 30-minute game to have them sort of think differently,” Veinott said. “But non-gamers actually did a lot better if they just had played one of these problem-solving games.”

Games encourage trying again after an initial failure, and trying multiple ways of approaching a problem. Regular players adopt these things into their regular cognitive processes.

John Holladay, on stream during Hancock High School’s Valorant match this week.

How do I watch my local team play?

Teams can’t hear when spectators are cheering them on, but Farmer said they still like knowing that people are watching. The players will look back at the video after the fact and can see what people have written in the live chat that runs with the stream.

“Even looking at it after the fact it is very entertaining to see when people get excited,” Farmer said.

At the same time, coaches and players understand that some of the games can be difficult to understand for a non-player. Roose said a lot of the responsibility to explain the game falls to the casters who host the streaming matches.

“So for us, we’re going to try to make sure that we’re able to articulate the purpose of the game or what somebody is doing, and explain it in a way that people are able to understand it,” Roose said.

She also said that some games are easier to understand than others. Those that are comparable to sports or described with traditional militaristic terms are more easily understandable to the non-player.

Sorensen said there’s one popular game that is very accessible to viewers.

“I hold Rocket League up as being what I consider to be a very good esport,” Sorensen said.

This is because the basics of the game are very easily explained, making the knowledge necessary for enjoyable viewing easy to attain.

“It’s soccer with flying Hot Wheels cars,” he said.

A Rocket League clip from plays.tv

League of Legends and Overwatch have complex game mechanics and fast-paced gameplay that make non-player viewing and adequate explanation difficult to manage. Roose said they’re developing FAQs and terminology lists to help first-time viewers and parents understand what is happening in matches.

You can watch esports matches on Twitch.tv, both teams and leagues host channels.

MTU's streaming channel

MTU Esports Twitter

Finlandia's streaming channel

Finlandia Esports Twitter

Holladay also streams the Hancock High School MIHSCF matches on his channel.

Holladay's streaming channel

The Hancock team is currently 4-0 in their season of Valorant. Baraga and Calumet also have high school esports teams.

“I’ve never said no to in-person viewers,” Sorensen said.

Local Graveyards: A Quiet Repository of Personal Histories

A grave marker is almost entirely hidden at the base of a tree inside the Hecla Cemetery, Oct. 19. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Those who lie here…

Last weekend, the Keweenaw Green Burial Alliance hosted a tour of graveyards in the Calumet area, including the Schoolcraft Cemetery, the Hecla Cemetery, and the Congregational Peniel Jewish Cemetery.

None of the three have been active for the last century, and many of the gravestones have tilted, fallen, or been knocked down. Some are beginning to be difficult to read after a century of weathering. Many are overgrown with myrtle and other brush and remain hidden from easy sight.

The beautiful, haunting, October aesthetic is undeniable. While it’s easy for many of us to drive by these stones and remark on the beauty without a second thought, there are those in the community who have worked hard to preserve the memory of the people interred beneath.

From the Schoolcraft Cemetery during the Oct. 16 group tour. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

The headstones often record violent causes of death, revealing an industrial and frontier history where the ages of the deceased were typically well below today's life expectancy.

Forgotten graveyards recovered

The Schoolcraft Cemetery

This cemetery, also known as the Centennial Cemetery, was founded in 1865 on about 5.3 acres by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company. More than 400 gravesites are recorded there on FindAGrave.com, and more than half of them have been photographed and researched by Lynette Webber, a 2021 graduate of Michigan Tech and a member of the Gamma Theta Upsilon geographical honor society. She and fellow GTU member Brooke Batterson, a master’s degree student in the industrial heritage and archaeology program at MTU, work to recover, record, and maintain the graveyard with other volunteers as one of their GTU chapter projects.

This Schoolcraft Cemetery marker stone looks blank, but there’s a high chance the engraving is simply on the other side. A gated cemetery plot blends into the trees of the background. Lynette Weber said many plots have yet to be uncovered here. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Batterson said that there are 440 - 500 burial spaces, but there could be more than 700 individuals interred there because of different practices like women sometimes being buried with an infant. The team, which includes graduate student James Juip, Assistant Professor Mark Rhodes, and Social Sciences Instructor Kathryn Hannum— all from MTU—has been working to map the gravesites with GPS technology and has completed about 234 of them. They’ve also been helping clear brush and walking trails with support from Calumet Township.

In the 1890s, the cemetery was considered full and burials were discouraged there in favor of Lake View Cemetery, which opened in 1894. However, occasional burials did continue to happen.

“It’s hard to know before 1897 who was buried there,” Weber said, “because it wasn’t included on death records—the cemetery or where they were left to rest.”

Some of the burials there were also disinterred, either to be reburied with family elsewhere or to be moved to the veteran’s section in Lake View Cemetery when it opened.

Schoolcraft Cemetery. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Calumet Township now owns the Schoolcraft Cemetery property, but for many years, Weber said the cemetery remained in the hands of the mining company.

“And they weren’t really in the cemetery business,” she said.

The mining company wasn’t interested in spending time or money in the graveyard. They also weren’t interested in keeping thorough, accurate records about the site.

“Even while Calumet and Hecla was still active, they weren’t doing a whole lot,” Weber said.

But Weber said that’s part of what makes the project exciting for GTU, the potential for rediscovery.

Schoolcraft Cemetery. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

The Hecla Cemetery

Also known as the Laurium or Sacred Heart Cemetery, this burial site was founded circa 1860 by the Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, and contains nearly 300 graves, according to research by Jeremiah Mason, Keweenaw National Historical Park Archivist. It was a Catholic cemetery, but no sexton’s records have been found for it. Most Catholic burials were placed in Lake View Cemetery starting around 1905.

From the Hecla Cemetery. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Between 1905 and 1958, local citizens repeatedly organized cleanups to try and keep the cemetery maintained. Ruth Gleckler, one of the current volunteer custodians, has found articles about cleanups and repair by the Catholic Societies, Father Humbert, and Sacred Heart Church itself.

Despite community efforts, it eventually fell into disrepair and suffered repeated vandalism and even illegal dumping. Headstones continue to be used as party locations by teens even after modern cleanup work, with ashes from a recent fire and other refuse still found in front of them.

In 2007, the land was purchased by the Houghton-Keweenaw County Genealogical Society and donated to Calumet Township. Several groups of volunteers have been working to restore it since then, with contributions from the National Park Service, Knights of Columbus, and many volunteers. The HKCGS has photos of many of the gravestones on their website, with chalk rubbings to make them more readable.

Hecla Cemetery. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

The Congregation Peniel Jewish Cemetery

Also known as the Jewish Lake View Cemetery, or simply the Calumet Jewish Cemetery.

According to Gleckler, there is an article from the Copper Country Evening News dated Sept. 14, 1900, that says a man named Max Gittler bought 3 acres next to the town of Lake View to establish a Jewish burial ground. According to the article, the Jewish families in the area needed a closer cemetery for burials, as the closest Jewish burial ground was in Marinette. Jewish tradition requires burial as soon as possible, within 24 hours of death traditionally. However, the rocky ground made burials difficult, and the cemetery was only used for about ten years.

FindAGrave.com shows only nine burials in the cemetery, but Gleckler said there are likely more.

Memories of the interred

A gated plot within the Schoolcraft Cemetery. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Weber, who led the tour through the Schoolcraft cemetery, is uploading much of the volunteer’s efforts onto FindaGrave.com, which makes a useful public repository for knowledge and photographs, although she said the crowd-sourced information isn’t always trustworthy. It serves as a useful tool for sharing their discoveries.

“I have actually gotten a few different responses from descendants who were very excited,” Weber said. “Some of them were able to go to the cemetery after we uncovered the grave marker for their family member and tidy it up a lot more.”

She said some markers they revealed had been searched for by family for as many as 50 years. There are many others that are still missing.

When they uncover a new marker, they can look the name up in birth, marriage, death, and census records. They can also check newspaper archives if they suspect the person died in an accident or crime that would have been covered.

Caroline Shwykert 1868-1875

Weber found Caroline Shwykert’s story to be among the most tragic they uncovered. After going out to retrieve the family cow, 7-year-old Caroline never returned. Her body was later found in Slaughterhouse Creek.

This article picks up the story from there.

Added to FindaGrave.com by Lynette Weber

Caroline’s father, Louis Schweigert, was a German immigrant who served in the Civil War. He was killed by gas in the mine and initially buried next to Caroline but was later moved to Lake View Cemetery for the newly-opened veteran’s section.

Caroline remains buried in the Schoolcraft Cemetery, next to a footstone labeled “L.S.” marking a now-empty grave.

Added to FindaGrave.com by Lynette Weber

“I think that’s a very compelling story in a lot of different ways,” Weber said. “There’s a lot of ‘what-ifs’ in a cemetery.”

Joseph Pope 1869-1893

Joseph Pope was one of ten men who died in a horrific mineshaft accident. When coming up a near-vertical shaft for their lunch, the hoist cage was pulled against the roof of the shaft house, crushing some of the occupants. The coupling pin then broke and the cage fell more than 3,000 feet to the bottom of the shaft.

The Calumet and Hecla Mining Company accepted no liability for what they called a mechanical failure but did pay out $1,000 to each of the victims’ families.

Added to FindaGrave.com by Lynette Weber

“It’s surreal to me because we’re around the same age,” Batterson said.

Green burial alternatives

The tour on Oct. 16 was organized and hosted by the Keweenaw Green Burial Alliance, proponents of a “dust to dust” approach to burial in which the body is laid to rest in a way that encourages natural decomposition.

In a green or natural burial, the body is buried in a more wild setting, like an unmowed meadow or woodland, without using toxic embalming fluids, cement vaults, or plastic grave liners. The body is buried in a biodegradable container and may or may not have any kind of marker, depending on the rules of the cemetery. Locations of burials are carefully recorded and provided to families on request.

Green burials are favored among those concerned about the environmental impacts of conventional burial or cremation, and those who want their body’s nutrients to return to nature.

A tilted grave marker in the Schoolcraft Cemetery. Lynette Weber said many stones have been hit by falling trees, but some of the damage is also vandalism. Photo by Joshua Vissers.

Tuning in to the vulnerable

At a press conference Monday morning, representatives from four local sheriff’s departments announced the beginning of a partnership with Project Lifesaver, sponsored by the Portage Health Foundation and also in partnership with Superior Search & Rescue.

Project Lifesaver partners with municipalities and trains emergency responders on how to use their technology to locate missing individuals who are registered with the project. Registered people, often those with a cognitive disorder who are more likely to wander away from home or their caregiver, wear a small, non-removable radio transmitter with an individualized signal. When they’re reported lost, trained personnel can tune in and track the signal using triangulation.

Houghton County Detective Lieutenant Charlie Klein

“It’s older technology than GPS, but it’s better for our area,” Houghton County Detective Lieutenant Charlie Klein said.

Lt. Klein took the lead in the press conference, introducing the new program and answering reporters’ questions.

He spoke plainly about the reason the program was being pursued.

“Back in April this year, we all witnessed the tragedy that took place in Ontonagon,” Lt. Klein said, referring to the unfortunate death of 17-year-old Cam Besonen, who had autism and walked away from home.

“After watching the tragedy unfold, I saw a need in our community to protect our most vulnerable people with cognitive disabilities,” Klein said. “I know firsthand how challenging and stressful it can be for a family that has a loved one with a cognitive disability. My wife and I have a five-year-old with Down syndrome.”

He began looking for a way to prevent the loss of another vulnerable community member, and through his search found Project Lifesaver. Whereas the search for Cam Besonen went on for 72 hours, Lt. Klein said the average rescue time with Project Lifesaver is 30 minutes, and they boast a 100% recovery rate since their founding in 1999.

“After finding Project Lifesaver, I approached my undersheriff Kevin Capo and the late Brian McLean and asked for the green light to figure out a way how to implement this program in our communities,” Lt. Klein said.

They and the sheriffs from Keweenaw, Baraga, and Ontonagon Counties all agreed it was a program that should be brought to the area, but the cost to establish it here was an issue. They approached the Portage Health Foundation and submitted a grant application. PHF has granted $34,000 toward the startup costs for all four counties and the fees for the first 50 families that enroll.

Ontonagon County Sheriff Dale Rantala

Ontonagon Sheriff Dale Rantala didn’t mince words about the loss of Cam Besonen this year. His body was found less than a mile from home.

“That was the worst day of my career,” he said. “Telling the parents that we found him, but not alive.”

He thanked Lt. Klein for taking the initiative to find a way to keep it from happening again.

In addition to the loss of life, he also shared that the search operation lasted 72 hours, took 2,474 man-hours, and cost $185,557. Sheriff Rantala thinks that if Project Lifesaver had been used, the search would have been over in ten minutes.

“I would love it if we have this technology and we never need it,” Sheriff Rantala said. “But if we need it, it’s going to have a much better outcome than I had.”

Ontonagon County Undersheriff Tonya Stefonich, Baraga County Sheriff Joe Brogan, and Houghton County Sheriff Josh Saaranen (left to right) at Monday’s conference.

Besides the initial grant for the technology and training for the officers to use it, Portage Health Foundation is covering the fees for the first 50 families to enroll, about $350 each. They’ve also launched an information, application, and fundraising webpage where the public can learn more and donate to support the program.

“The hope is that none of these families that participate in this will ever have to pay money to use it,” said PHF Marketing and Communications Director Michael Babcock.

Each sheriff’s department will have its own locator equipment, and Superior Search and Rescue has agreed to offer support with using it in the field, too. Batteries in the worn transmitters need replacing every two months, and law enforcement is planning to do the battery changes and replacing the single-use wristbands themselves.

Some of the specifics are still unknown to the participating departments, as the initial, 3-day training begins tomorrow. It includes not only how to use the technology itself, but also how to implement the program and what behavior to expect from someone with a cognitive disability who is lost.

Babcock noted that Besonen’s loss was not the only incident that has happened in the last year.

There will be a public information session about the program announced by the Portage Health Foundation within the next two months. The departments all hope to begin registering families and distributing wristbands in December.

UPDATE: The Houghton County Sheriff’s Office announced on Nov. 5 that enrollment for Project Lifesaver is now open. To start the enrollment process, you can email Sheriff Josh Saaranen at jsaaranen@houghtonsheriff.com, Detective Charlie Klein at cklein@houghtonsheriff.com, or complete the online interest form on the Portage Health Foundation information website. Or you can call the Houghton County Sheriff’s office at (906)482-0055.

When the rescuers need support

It doesn’t happen everywhere, but the wide-open spaces of the Upper Peninsula mean that search and rescue operations are a common occurrence locally. Hikers and hunters get lost, snowmobiles take wrong turns, elderly dementia patients can walk away from home, and youth will run. Every situation is as different as the subject of the search and the terrain that they’re lost in, and time is always against the search party.

In addition to first responders like the police, firefighters, and EMTs, the Keweenaw area is fortunate to have a team of trained volunteers that is available to assist with these search and rescue events.

Chris VanArsdale is the full-time emergency management coordinator for Houghton and Keweenaw Counties. So during any emergency, he helps relay messages between different agencies and levels of government about who needs what to work effectively. Between emergencies, he works to keep his resource and contact list up to date and familiarizes himself with the processes important for different disasters and getting emergency assistance and funding -- whether that assistance comes from a neighboring county, the state or federal level, or even a neighboring state.

VanArsdale is also the president of Superior Search and Rescue, an independent, non-profit search and rescue (SAR) team that assists law enforcement by request. They can supplement things like communication and logistics, and even have a specialized drone available.

“It all kind of depends on the situation,” VanArsdale said. “And it depends on the law enforcement on scene and what they think they might need.”

One of the keys to finding a person is narrowing down the search area. One important way of doing this is knowing about the behavior of the lost person. Law enforcement will usually try and contact family and friends to get a history. Have they done this before? Do they have any health conditions? Do they like to walk? Do they tend to leave the trail or road, or stay on it?

“And based on that, you kind of start to build a mental model of what this person is like,” VanArsdale said. “It sounds a little strange, but if we’re lucky, they have a history…”

A history with a pattern means there’s a good chance they’ll find them quickly at or near where they’ve been found in the past. VanArsdale said people with Alzheimer’s or dementia will often go back to places they previously worked or former homes. But even if they have no history available, there are statistical tools that can be put to use to narrow the search field.

“Lost Person Behavior” by Robert J. Koester contains compiled statistics from search and rescue operations around the country, and using those SAR teams can help predict where a subject is more likely to be found. It includes cross-referencing for weather and terrain conditions, age, mobility, and mental health disorders like Alzheimer’s, autism, dementia, and schizophrenia, and more.

“Really, searching boils down to numbers,” VanArsdale said. “We can guess on motivations and things like that but at the end of the day it’s really a statistics game.”

For instance, if you use math to calculate how far into a trail system someone might have walked or run, you might estimate 6 miles per hour as their speed, and over three or four hours they may have traveled 18 to 24 miles.

“But this says, actually, they should be within eight miles 95% of the time,” VanArsdale said.

So without a more specific history to work from, they start with what has the highest probability of locating the person and move as quickly as safely possible through the scenarios. The book has also been built into a smartphone app with extra step-by-step guides.

When SAR personnel do find someone, they’ll talk or call out to the person to see if they are who they’re searching for and if they’re okay, but they radio for law enforcement to come and pick the person up.

“Most of the time, people seem to be happy that they are found,” VanArsdale said. “I can’t think of an instance where they haven’t been okay with being found.”

He said sometimes the subject of a search doesn’t realize they had been lost, or at least don’t communicate it. Law enforcement conducts manhunts and searches for other potentially dangerous persons without the help of volunteer SAR workers.

Darian Reed is a Michigan Tech student, local bus driver, and has been volunteering with SAR teams for nearly four years now.

He said he’s been a part of more than a dozen searches and likes working on the logistical side of things where the moving parts of people, equipment, and resources create a puzzle.

“You have 50 volunteers,” Reed said. “You need to get them food, you need to get them water, you need to get them bathrooms… I’m focused on that kind of stuff.”

That means that during an active search, he’s often in or near the command center, close to the heart of the operation. He said that the emotions of seeing worried and distraught family members can be stressful and make focusing on important operational tasks difficult. The desire to give comfort to the distressed person, or at least to avoid increasing their discomfort by saying something blunt or inconsiderate, creates an internal tug of war between the SAR work and the emotional distress. Even more conflicting for the volunteers, sometimes a family member may disagree with decisions SAR personnel are making based on their training.

One thing Superior Search and Rescue does to help defray the stress on their volunteers is to keep them working in rotating shifts.

“We don’t want them to be consistently out, getting tired out,” Reed said.

The last thing a SAR operation should end in is with more people being lost or injured, and exhaustion, working in the dark or rain, and other harsh weather increases the likelihood of an incident with a searcher. Exhaustion also increases the chances of a mistake or an emotional outburst.

Nonetheless, during one search this year, Reed spent 56 hours of the 72-hour search in the field. He said that a volunteer like him has to care pretty deeply about what they’re doing to do it at all, but also needs to maintain professionalism to do it effectively.

“And sometimes you can go too far on one side or the other,” Reed said.

And not every search ends without tragedy. While a search is only technically a failure if they don’t recover the subject at all, the obvious goal is to recover them alive. Unfortunately, there is always the chance that won’t happen.

Reed said after one subject was found already deceased, he and his roommate, another volunteer, drove for about twenty minutes in silence on their way home before either of them could begin to talk about it. While law enforcement deals with the scene where the deceased is found, Reed is often dealing with volunteers. He said one experience with a volunteer coordinating food for others still sticks with him.

“She was talking to me about her plan, she said she had staffing for the next three days…” Reed said. “And I was completely zoned out. In one ear out the other.”

Reed had already been informed the search was complete, albeit not happily, and was trying to keep it quiet until law enforcement could make an official announcement. After about two hours, he finally broke down and quietly told the woman the bad news, and the sudden change in her expression still sticks with him, months later. Memories of the family during the search do, too. So do memories of heckling and bad-faith comments from bystanders after the search.

When an incident like this impacts first responders and volunteers in a negative way, there are places in the community they can turn to for support.

“All these incidents really do take a toll,” Reed said. “And I pretend that I’m okay… but you know, there is something to be said about asking for help.”

For those like police, firefighters, nurses, and SAR workers, who might need to confidentially share their experiences among a group, the Critical Incident Stress Management team can come together, and did after that particular event.

“I think it was really helpful for those that were in the command post, which included myself and a few other individuals,” Reed said.

Pastor Bucky Beach from Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is one of the coordinators of the CISM team. The team responds to help responder groups that have trauma they may need to work through. It could be a car accident on the street, suicide in a community, shooting at a home, or mortality at the hospital.

“So we might not deal with the immediate family who has a suicide or something like that,” Beach said. “We’ll deal with the people that responded to it and were called out to deal with it.”

The team works with the group following the Mitchell Model.

Confidentiality, mutual trust and respect, and attentiveness are prioritized during the meeting. The group works through the events that happened, the thoughts they’ve had about it, their emotional reactions, and physical signs of distress. Then they learn about what it will take to move beyond those reactions and symptoms before being sent home with advice both for them and their family and friends.

They’re advised to maintain their regular schedules, spend time with others, and understand that their difficulties are normal. The people around them can help by spending time with them, offering to listen but giving them space, and helping with everyday tasks.

For volunteers or members of the public that don’t have access to a CISM group meeting, or for those not comfortable speaking in a group, public services like Dial Help are available.

Rebecca Crane has been executive director of the organization for 12 years now.

“I just wanted to point out that our crisis line turned 50 years old in August,” she said with a hint of pride.

The crisis line is available 24-hours, 7 days a week. Someone working through any issue, including a difficult search and rescue outcome, can call whenever they’re ready.

“Our crisis specialists are trained to talk people through issues like that, even if someone just needs to talk,” Crane said.

If their needs go beyond a phone conversation, they can be moved into Dial Help’s safety net program which includes some more proactive support from Dial Help’s volunteers like scheduled calls and assistance finding more long-term supports.

“Basically, the person will kind of follow them along until they start getting more of the supports, or the initial crisis or the multitude of crises have subsided a little bit,” Crane said.

Crane said needing an extra source of support doesn’t mean someone is broken or crazy.

“We have callers from all different backgrounds, all different income levels, everything you can think of,” Crane said. “I think sometimes people just need to talk to someone who’s trained, who might be like, not a member of their family for some reason.”

New problems call for new solutions

Hancock Public Schools adapts old extracurricular programs, launches new ones, to adapt to virus precautions

For many, 2020-21 was the strangest school year and most challenging ever for students.

The most frustrating aspect for all concerned was the unknown and the fact that everything could change in a minute. Jesse Kentala is the principal at Hancock Middle School. He said all year long students and their parents had questions.

"Will there be a basketball season? How about spring concerts? What about graduation? There was just never a firm timeline at the state or national level and information changed constantly.”

He said the key to survival was that everyone had to learn to be adaptable and more importantly, creative.

Kentala said there wasn't an area of school life that was not impacted in some capacity by the pandemic. Hancock, like all other local districts, worked creatively to keep student programs and clubs moving forward.

"For example, our band concerts moved to a virtual platform so parents and the community could still enjoy these fine musicians. The middle school drama club performed ‘A Christmas Carol,’ which was filmed and shared with families."

Even the time-honored middle school camp experience was modified. Because Camp Nesbit was not open due to COVID-19, the school worked with Camp Michigamme in Marquette Couty to give 6th and 7th-grade students a unique camp experience that, Kentala said, “created lifetime memories.”

Photos provided by Jesse Kentala

The impact of the pandemic on athletic programs received considerable attention and subsequent pushback from the parents of student-athletes.

“It was hard to miss the activism and pushback from parents regarding the sports season rollercoaster. Letters were written to the state, videos were created and shared online and social media blew up with slogans and protests,” Kentala said.

What was less visible was the impact on non-sports-related programs and the missed opportunities by so many students. With a significant number of students turning to online platforms or even home-schooling options, Kentala said many school programs and clubs suffered as a result.

“After-school programming was hit hard and many of these programs shrunk or even closed down completely, causing us to rethink how we provided extracurricular opportunities for our students.”

Noting that there was nothing fun about the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentala said it allowed for a creative approach to many non-athletic clubs and organizations.

“We understood the importance of providing students with opportunities to lead and grow, but we couldn't provide them in the same mode as in the past. As Alice Walker said ‘You can't step in the same river twice. The river is different and so are you.’”

Rather than focusing on what they couldn't control, Kentala said they elected to set their sights on what they could. Working with Finlandia University, Hancock started an e-sports team for both middle and high school students. The Coding Club met in socially distanced spaces with virtual instruction allowing students to grow in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields.

He said Hancock's service organizations, specifically the National Honor Society, altered their approach to volunteer hours.

“At one point before the holiday break, the entire Hancock Middle School sang carols to the elderly at Portage Pointe while high school students delivered care packages to students and families affected by the pandemic. It was a beautiful event.”

Kentala said the upcoming school year is looked at with excitement with renewed energy and an emphasis on filling the gap that COVID-19 left.

“At Hancock, we are switching to a trimester system that will allow students the opportunity to take many new and elective courses. We are aiming to create classes and clubs that give all students the opportunity to learn, lead and grow.”

Among those opportunities are an investment club allowing students to invest money in the stock market in real-time. There will be a "Girls who Code" club for middle school students with a passion for STEM. And there's more.

“The Civil Air Patrol is allowing middle and high school students the chance to learn to fly and our robotics team is continuing to do great things in a much anticipated non-COVID-19 environment.”

Kentala said that learning from the challenges and disappointments of the very difficult pandemic impacted school year has made the district more determined than ever to give students the best experiences they can.

Teachers take to the Inland Seas to learn new tech

Learning to create virtual reality tours for their classes, area educators find new experiences to share

Geo-Investigations Project Website: https://sites.google.com/remc1.org/geosummer2021/home

A complete geo-investigation presentation from 2020, focused on the Gratiot River County Park:
https://sites.google.com/clkschools.org/gratiotriverparkrocks

For more about the ship:
https://www.tallshipsamerica.org/vessels/inland-seas/

Inland Seas’ website:
https://schoolship.org/

About the 360 degree cameras:
https://theta360.com/en/about/theta/v.html

Projects from this week's workshop aren't complete yet, but check back!

PHF launches local Bridges Out of Poverty initiative

Community leaders met this week to learn about what, beyond money, those living in generational poverty need to succeed

This week, community leaders from a wide swath of sectors met to learn more about living in generational poverty from an expert, Treasure McKenzie. McKenzie knows about poverty not only because she’s the director of Bridges Out of Poverty, a program by aha! Process, Inc. that works to reduce the social costs of poverty by creating a common language between different sectors of the community, she also grew up in generational poverty herself.

To learn more about generational poverty, how it’s defined, how it’s different from situational poverty, and its prevalence in Michigan, read the Michigan Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity 2015 Generational Poverty Report.

McKenzie explained to the group of CEOs, superintendents, HR directors, bankers, detectives, and business leaders —who all voluntarily participated— that those who live in generational poverty tend to value their relationships with others first, before achievements like degrees or promotions.

Treasure McKenzie, Bridges Out of Poverty director

“That’s how you end up with names like Treasure,” she said.

McKenzie traveled to Houghton from Muskogee, Oklahoma, where the Bridges Out of Poverty program is well-established, with a series of classes and help for people with dental, legal and auto issues. She came at the request and with the financial support of the Portage Health Foundation.

“Poverty intertwines with almost everything we’re trying to do,” PHF Director Kevin Store told the group before the program began.

He said that BOP aligns with PHF’s mission to address the social determinants of health, and that’s why launching a local effort was important. The goal is for groups to start “silo-busting” and work together to address more of the root causes of poverty.

McKenzie said BOP is often associated with budgeting classes.

“That’s not what I do,” she said. “It’s not about budgeting.”

They do offer some “Getting Ahead” classes to those living in poverty that focus on learning how to make connections, navigate some of society’s hidden rules, and make planning choices, but about half of the education they do is actually for business owners and the middle class, working to dispel common misconceptions about poverty and the people living in it.

When those living in poverty, or the ‘under resourced’, as the program often calls them, join in BOP classes, they are called investigators, because they inform the organization’s work with their own life experiences.

McKenzie said that generational poverty in particular can be kind of like an addiction, and the person dealing with it may not be able to see the way out for themselves. Admonishments to “just do better” in some way are not going to help them.

“I call it being ‘should’ on,” McKenzie said.

Suggesting they should get a job, move away from a bad relationship, or work harder isn’t effective, but more money, in general, won’t necessarily be either. Generational poverty is about more than just money. It’s about resources which can include the financial, but also emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, relational, and perhaps most importantly, it can be about the hidden rules in a middle-class-focused society that someone didn’t learn growing up.

“You only know what you know,” McKenzie said.

Banks, schools, government buildings and more work on a set of middle-class norms that can be unfamiliar and unwelcoming to those from generational poverty, making access to a variety of opportunities and services uncomfortable at best.

It’s also not that those in poverty aren’t willing to work hard.

As an example, McKenzie shared a video about a woman named Tammy, who walks ten miles to her job at Burger King, and her sons.

“I don’t know what else to do,” Tammy says.

McKenzie pointed out there were things in the video that money wouldn’t fix, particularly the family issues; lack of a father figure for the sons, and the social strain between Matt and his mother and brother caused by Matt’s shame of his living situation, the lack of recognition from passersby at her job, and more.

The documentary checks in with Tammy again 14 years later.

The group also explored the ‘mental models’ of those living with poverty, in the middle class, or in wealth. Mental models are internal pictures of what things look like to us and determine how we act, often without our examination. There’s also a limited amount of space inside a mental model.

BOP’s mental model of poverty centers on relationships and includes things like food, childcare, time spent at agencies, jobs, legal issues, safety, mental health and chemical dependency, and housing. Accessible businesses in the neighborhood probably include pawn shops, fast food, check cashing services, dollar stores, and laundromats.

In the middle class, the mental model focuses on achievement and includes things like social media, childcare, careers, mortgage payments, long working hours, clubs and groups, mental health and chemical dependency, health and prevention, and vacations. The neighborhood probably has banks, bookstores, coffee shops, and office buildings.

There is some overlap, but those in poverty are focused on much more immediate needs and have less time and mental “bandwidth” to focus on planning for the future.

McKenzie explained that being able to construct a “future story” is a luxury of the middle class and wealthy because their immediate needs are usually taken care of. Those living in poverty have to deal with the “tyranny of the moment”, which is shorthand for the immediately necessary survival needs like food, shelter and safety. Even simple things like staying clean by doing laundry can take half of a day when a parent has to use a laundromat, doesn’t have access to childcare, and lacks transportation. This can lead to decisions that may seem wrong or bad to those living outside poverty.

One example McKenzie offered was the purchasing of an expensive TV. To someone in the middle class looking at someone impoverished, they may wonder why they wouldn’t use that money to fix something on their car or house, or to pay off debt. However, to someone in generational poverty, those problems are endless, and watching TV is the only vacation they ever get.

McKenzie said buying a television they may not “need” isn’t a moral or financial decision for those in generational poverty.

“It’s a mental health decision,” she said.

McKenzie led the group through several exercises designed to help them understand the behavior and decisions made by people living in generational poverty. She said it’s important that those in poverty, the middle class, and the wealthy learn to communicate better because it takes all three to make meaningful policy changes that will lift the community as a whole up.

Those making the policies are mostly the wealthy, and those making hiring and business decisions are most often middle-class, but if those policies and decisions aren’t informed by the realities of those living in and near poverty, then they can work against themselves.

McKenzie related the story of one business owner who, after attending one of her classes, made note of how many good employees he’d let go for being late to work because of strict company policy when often the conditions of their tardiness were outside of their control because of public transportation or family issues. A change in policy, or a little flexibility, could have saved him from the costly process of finding and training new employees.

Government policies that prevent agencies from sharing information with each other force people looking for needs-based help to spend time filling out paperwork, again and again, to prove they are poor to different agencies, a process that is both time-consuming and sometimes humiliating. A shift in policy to allow some information sharing could afford someone more time to look for work or cook healthy food.

“Think about having someone from all three circles when you start making decisions,” McKenzie said.

At the end of the meeting, small discussions were seeded about what policy changes and partnerships might be meaningful as the program moves forward.

Store said, at the end of the meeting, that bringing about measurable results would likely take at least 5 years, but that bringing about systems change for those in generational poverty was important to the health of the community, too.

“They’re very much hand-in-glove issues,” he said.

BOP has found that meaningful, long-lasting change only seems to be truly affected on a family-by-family basis, and so it takes time to take hold in a community, but they’ve calculated that in Muskogee alone they’ve saved the cost of social services more than $1 million, among other benefits like a larger, more stable workforce.

“We need to take a longer length look,” Store said.