Mentoring A New Generation

Continuing our partnership with the Eagle Rock School (ER), students of Cynthia Elkins and Dayan Safferstein’s art class spent the past 5 weeks painting this mural in the Alpine Interagency Hotshot Dorm at Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Building on the success of the ER Internship and Citizen Science Classes (Fire & Dragonfly), students learned how to work with clients, adopt and expand their vision, work on a team with varied work styles, and finish an original work of art under a deadline. The project was a new way to involve ER students and to connect with new audiences and students that may have never thought about doing anything with the National Parks. The mural provides a way for youth to leave their mark on RMNP and show other students they too can get involved and leave a lasting impression.

The class was the idea of Paul Cerda (Alpine Hotshots), Ben Baldwin (RMNP) and Jon Anderson (ER). “We have worked together on several internships, classes and opportunities and thought this would be an interesting idea,” said Ben Baldwin.

The class also painted a replica of the "1981 Arrowhead 1" logo on the south facing wall of the dorm. The image was taken from a crew shirt Jon Larson gave Paul Cerda at the crew's 30-year reunion.