Green Team Service Trip to Montrose, Colorado

Green Team students at Black Canyon

This past May, ten students from Green Team Southwestern travelled to Montrose, Colorado to hike and have fun in the mountains and to perform service work at the nearby Sonrise Mountain Ranch. The team, led by Green Team director Jason Speegle, travelled from Winfield, KS to Montrose on Tuesday, May 8. The first day of their time in Colorado, the group went exploring at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Black Canyon is the steepest canyon in the United States, some 2250 feet deep in sections.

On May 10, the team travelled 30 minutes from Montrose to Sonrise Mountain Ranch, a family Christian campground on the Big Cimarron Mountain. Nestled on the mountainside at an elevation of around 8500 feet, Sonrise Mountain Ranch hosts and ministers to families during the summer months by conducting marriage and family retreats and mission trips. The Green Team students spent 4 days working at Sonrise, helping Roger and Val Drown prepare cabins for the upcoming retreat season. During those four days, the students built a deck, replaced old plywood, sanded two cabins and varnished a cabin. “Service is such an important aspect of the Green Team and the culture of Southwestern. It was a tremendous blessing to be able to help Sonrise prepare for their summer ministry, and the location was simply breathtaking” said Speegle.

The students on the Green Team enjoy working hard, but they like to have fun too. During their trip to Colorado, the group went hiking, fly fishing, roasted S’mores over a campfire, visited a nearby waterfall, and played their favorite game, Apples to Apples. The team also visited the town of Ouray, a small mountain town famous for its hot springs.

Green Team after a hard day of work at Sonrise

“The trip to Montrose/Sonrise was a tremendous team experience and a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the school year. I am so proud of the students who went on the trip. They worked so hard and went above and beyond, because they wanted to help Sonrise. They always amaze me!” said Speegle.

I (Jason Speegle) have asked the students who went on the trip to write a brief paragraph about their experience on the trip. The students who travelled to Montrose are Mark Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), Stephen Strecker (Tonkawa, OK), Sarah Rommelfanger (Baldwin City, KS), Tendai Kwaramba (Zimbabwe), Daniel Van Sickle (Maize, KS), Joey Tran (Arlington, TX), Bri Cathcart (Fort Collins, CO), Cali Portenier (Grenola, KS), Harrison Wynn (Mulvane, KS), and Elle Nguyen (Wichita, KS). I hope to post their thoughts over the next couple of weeks, so check back frequently.