Estes Park Archives - Eagle Rock Blog

Buying a Flock of Rubber Ducks Supports Eagle Rock School Scholarships

Just as the swallows return to Mission San Juan Capistrano each year, the rubber duckies return to Estes Park — this year on Saturday, May 5 — continuing a three-decade tradition that has seen more than $2.4 million returned to our mountainside community as a result of Duck Race Festival purchases and disbursements to local organizations like Eagle Rock.

Dozens of area charities and organizations — including the Graduate Higher Education Fund here at Eagle Rock School — are recipients of nearly 100 percent of the proceeds from the Estes Park Rotary Duck Race Festival, which starts at Nicky’s Resort alongside the Fall River in downtown Estes Park, Colo.

The excitement mounts as race participants line the river to see thousands of adopted rubber duckies released into the waterway, floating downstream to the finish line on the Big Thompson River near Rockwell Street. Each duck is a potential winner to its adopted owner, with hundreds of prizes available to Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Students Learn How to Run a Nature-based Summer Camp

Several Eagle Rock School students had the opportunity to work with children in the nearby Estes Park community this past summer where they learned how to successfully run a nature-based summer program.

Our four fledgling camp counselors / para-administrators had a lot to learn. The month-long Eagle Rock School class (the Roots Summer Camp Internship) entailed so much more than just keeping a watchful eye on enthusiastic youngsters. Budgeting, marketing, and child development were just a few of the skills taught to our students as they mentored and managed sometimes as many as 16 children enrolled in Roots Nature Camp, offered by Estes Park-based Roots Community School.

Fact is, Eagle Rock students who applied for the summer class first had to undergo a series of interviews and tests before being accepted into the program. For starters, students had to demonstrate a strong desire to Continue reading…

Eagle Rock’s Students Step Up to the Plate for the Estes Park Community

One of the most important endeavors we undertake here at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center is to instill in our student population a sense of being of service to others. More specifically, we attempt to drive home the concept of “giving back to the community” as a lifelong habit for those who might become the nation’s future leaders or its active citizens.

This notion of “becoming a better person through service to others,” dates back to Eagle Rock’s beginnings more than two decades ago. To that end, we continue to start off each trimester with an activity we called EagleServe — two full days of campus and community activities that involve each of our students and many of our staff members.

EagleServe connects our campus with our neighbors through service projects intended to help not only the Eagle Rock community, but nearby Estes Park and the greater Estes Valley. These well-planned events took place last Thursday and Friday, highlighted by students working side by side with community members at large.

EagleServe 71 (the 71 represents the 71st trimester since the school’s founding back in 1993) began Thursday, Jan. 19, with the theme “Solution Focused Leadership” (SFL).

Students and staff members met bright and early in the Hearth area of the Lodge, then split up into project work groups. After lunch, students in each project group began the two-hour process of researching their particular group and coming up with a game plan.

Below are the project groups and their participants: Continue reading…

Eagle Rock Students Present Philanthropic Video to Estes Park Community

A short, five-minute video produced by Eagle Rock students that illustrates the importance of service work (see below) was presented to a banquet hall of more than 400 Estes Park community members earlier this month.

The occasion was National Philanthropy Day (Nov. 15), and six Eagle Rock students and four staff members debut the video at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. The focus of this year’s philanthropic event was “Youth in Philanthropy,” and several Eagle Rock students shot, edited and produced this year’s offering (see above), which focuses on Continue reading…

Detour: Local Road Construction Impacts Getting To and From Eagle Rock

The town of Estes Park has just begun a five-month project that is expected to renovate Dry Gulch Road, the route that leads to Notaiah Road and the start of Eagle Rock’s expansive mountainside grounds. This important capital improvement project is ranked No. 1 on the town’s roadway program and is the first to be funded for work in 2016.

And while this reconstruction and rehabilitation project is good news for those of us who commute to campus for work or leave school to visit downtown Estes Park, the construction work will certainly put a damper on our transportation habits. In fact, beginning now and running through the end of August, students, staff and visitors alike will be taking a seven-mile detour to get to Eagle Rock’s entrance at Notaiah Road.

The reconstruction of Dry Gulch Road is taking shape in two separate phases, with the first phase already underway with a road closure from U.S. 34 north to Stone Gate Drive. This full closure — as well as the one planned in Phase 2 — enables work to be done in significantly less time than it would take by closing alternate lanes. No firm date has been established for the beginning of the second phase of roadwork.

For the past three years, Estes Park has been planning for this $3.93-million project, which includes Continue reading…

EagleServe: Helping Others in Order to Help Ourselves

Even a cursory glance the Eagle Rock mission and philosophy gives the casual observer the indication that Service with a capital “S” is of primary importance to what takes place here at the Eagle Rock School. We want to develop future leaders who will use their education to change the world — for the better.

And nothing better illustrates this than our two-day EagleServe events, which are scheduled each trimester like clockwork with the intended goal of serving the Eagle Rock community, as well as the nearby community of Estes Park and the greater Estes Valley.

These are well-planned events where students and staff join up with members of the community, working side by side in the planning, creating and implementing of a variety of projects.

We think it’s vitally important for our veteran students to reconnect with the community and for our newer students to become familiar with our neighbors by stepping outside of themselves to help a variety of people. We choose to incorporate staff into EagleServe — not as supervisors, but to take part in a shared experience with the students.

And that experience, of course, is serving others. We like the oxymoron that you can best help yourself by Continue reading…

Showing Support For What We’ve Helped To Create

While we happily accept donations for the Graduate Higher Education Fund at any time, there are several times during the year when Eagle Rock staff and students really go all out and “work” for it.

Take, for example, the start of the summer and fall trimesters when we set time aside for Graduate Work Day. During the first week of these trimesters, our students and staff members devote a day to serving the Estes Park community through yard work and other chores.

These folks charge an hourly rate — but instead of pocketing the money, they turn the proceeds over to administrators of the Graduate Fund. This year our community earned $1,500 sprucing up areas of the town on May 15. Charging a flat $12 per hour per worker, 10 staff members and about 40 students divided themselves among 16 projects around town. One group headed off to the historic Stanley Hotel to weed and perform other gardening tasks on the resort hotel’s expansive 55-acre grounds. Other groups headed to private homes to rake leaves, clean windows, stack firewood, shovel snow and complete other chores.

The funding program had its origins in 1997 when Eagle Rock staff realized that they had a lot of grads that wanted to go to college and had the grades to get into college, but lacked the money to do so.

The Graduate Higher Education Fund award was gradually increased over the years and now stands at Continue reading…