An Inside Look at the Students of the Fells

The Students of the Fells is a club available for Malden students that includes many activities in the outdoors.  The activities include hiking, canoeing, overnight adventures, ecology, survival along with many others. Here at the Malden High School Erin Craven, from the Boyle house guidance counselor, is the advisor. The students of the fells does not only consist of Malden students but it also contains students from neighboring cities such as Medford and Melrose.

This project was established a couple years ago after a grant was given to there was a grant that was given to “Friends of the Fells” which is an adult organization that works with the Middlesex Fells Reservation. The Middlesex Fells Reservation is a big plot of land that expands through Malden, Medford, Melrose, and the corner of Stoneham. There was a grant they earned that involved working with students. Nikolas Tower (from the Medford High School) got the grant. He is the overseer of this grant money and he created clubs in Malden, Melrose and Medford and the clubs are called the “Students of the Fells” and they work with the “Friends of the Fells” which is the volunteer organization that tries to preserve the middlesex reservation area.

The “Students of the Fells” have gone overnight skiing and overnight camping, they have volunteered for the “Fall for the Fells” 5K and 10K trail race(at the Medford High School this fall), they have built a bridge and they’ve also done a coastal sweep by cleaning up the trails.

There is not fee to be in this club. Along with the grant Tower looks to get as many donations as he can. These donations are used a lot on trips for snacks and they secure scholarships for kids who don’t have the money to go to these events. Not all, but some of the equipments used by the club is provided for the club members. Some of the grant money goes to buying things like hiking boots, or camping gear, among other things.

There are still many events coming up in the spring like the Boston Harbor Island campout. Craven said that “sometime in May that’s hopefully going to happen”. Also, “they hope this summer to go on a canoe and camping expedition” added Craven. They will be “[doing] a fundraiser…which will be a cardboard canoe race…where you build a canoe out of cardboard and duct tape and then race them.” Craven concluded. 

There are no requirements to be in this club, but Craven added that “You probably want to have some love or at least some excitement for the outdoors …pretty much everything [they] do is outdoors or related to appreciating or preserving the outdoors [and] enjoying outdoor space.”

Fabien Xu is in charge of this club at the Malden High School. He met Tower on a YMCA leaders trip.Tower had asked if he was interested in the outdoors and later he became part of the club. Xu said he isn’t much of a “superfan” of the outdoors but anytime there is an event there is an event coming up he always attends. He also added that he started going to this club just to “kill some time.” For him the best part about being in the club is getting to be a leader. When asked about Craven as an advisor he described her as being “an awesome advisor.”

Overall the club is looking for new members who would be interested in participating. They want to encourage more students being outdoors and this club is a great opportunity to make going outside something enjoyable.