Climbing Wall Has Cheney Students Reaching For The Top

Build it and they will climb.

Since Sept. 1, students at Cheney Middle School are reaching new heights before school, during lunch hours and in physical education classes on a 96-foot long, 9-foot tall climbing wall completed this fall.

Two of the school’s teachers, Joan Hisaw and Charlie Lemcke “had a dream,” said Principal Don Peck.

“They ran into all kinds of problems, but they kept their eye on it and got it going this fall,” Peck said. The climbing wall was built last summer inside the school’s gym with the volunteer labor of parents, employees and teachers, Peck said.

The wall has proven so popular with students that there aren’t always enough adult supervisors to keep watch on the wall. Students are allowed to climb only when a supervisor is present, Peck said.

Even Peck has donned tennis shoes and tried to climb the wall.

“Try is the key word,” he said.

Physical education teacher Hisaw said teachers first contemplated constructing a climbing wall after one student’s mother saw a photograph of a climbing wall that had been built at a South Dakota school.

A local artist, Bob Strampe, painted a 120-by-18-foot mural depicting grasses, rocks and hills, forming the backdrop for the climbing wall.

“The whole wall from the roof to the floor is this huge mural,” Hisaw said.

The wall has 2,400 holes for supporting hands and feet.

Forty children can traverse the wall at one time, Hisaw said.

The cost to build the wall was about $10,000. Donations poured in from local businesses, parents and more than 40 teachers, Hisaw said.

Lemcke, a teacher at Cheney Middle School, and the school’s lead carpenter, designed and built the wall from scratch.

“Charlie got a book and started reading about it. Charlie and the carpenter figured out what we needed and just put it up,” Hisaw said.

Students traverse the wall diagonally rather than climb straight up. The technique is called “bouldering” and eliminates the need for ropes or harnesses, Hisaw said.

Safety mats line the floor and protect students from bumps, she added. “Middle school kids have all this energy,” Hisaw said. “We’re always telling them to get off the bleachers, get off the table, so we thought why not let them climb?”

The emphasis in physical education classes is no longer focused on group sports like football or basketball, she said. The emphasis is on activities that kids might want to do when they’re adults.

Hisaw said the climbing wall builds arm and leg strength, increases coordination and helps build self-confidence for those children who don’t always shine when it comes to team sports. “They’re just like little spiders up there,” Hisaw said.

Ferris band will march Saturday

It will be “blisters and brass” for the Ferris High School Marching Band Saturday when the 250 band members stage a five-mile pledge parade beginning at 10 a.m.

“This is to see how many blisters they can get before passing out,” said Dave Weatherred, director of the Ferris High School Band.

The pledge parade is a fund-raiser for the band’s planned trip to the Tournament of Roses Paradee Jan. 1. It’s also good practice for the five-mile Rose Parade route, said Weatherred.

And it’s a way to thank the community for its support.

Band members will march east from the school along 37th Avenue, south on Freya Street, west on 62nd Avenue, and loop back around to Freya Street and then back to school. The parade should be completed by noon.

“Streets will be closed as we go by,” the band director said.

Weatherred said the pledge parade theme is “Raindrops on Roses,.” adding, “We’ll be doing music from the “Sound of Music” and playing the “Washington Post March.” He said the band is about halfway toward meeting its $40,000 pledge goal.

Contributions may be mailed to Ferris High School, c/o the Ferris Band, 3020 East 37th Ave., Spokane, WA 99223. Band members stationed along Saturday’s parade route also will accept donations, Weatherred said.

Roosevelt students to honor T.R.

The neighborhood near Roosevelt Elementary School will swarm with Teddies tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. But don’t expect fuzzy bears.

Roosevelt’s 650 students will sport glasses and mustaches in celebration of Theodore Roosevelt’s 136th birthday.

Students will parade around the school at 2:30 p.m. while the Lewis and Clark High School Band plays.

The school, at 333 W. 14th, is named after the former president.

Clayton Harrington, a parent of two Roosevelt students, will portray President Roosevelt. He will visit with students all day, going from “class to class giving age-specific lessons about his life and times,” said Principal Janis Rust.

LC student at Sea World camp

Lindsay Griffith, a sophomore at Lewis and Clark High School, is the only student from Spokane attending Sea World of Texas’ Sea World Careers Camp this week.

Griffith, one of 30 high school students participating from around the nation, has been accompanying Sea World staff members as they have prepared meals for otters, sea lions and stingray. She also has been helping staff members monitor the health of the animals and the behavior of the whales.

Chase, Sheridan teachers honored

Kevin Smith, who teaches physical education at Chase Middle School, and Sharon Langford, who teaches fifth-graders at Sheridan Elementary School, both received the Commendation Award in the American Association of School Administrators’ Sallie Mae Outstanding Beginning Teacher Recognition Program for 1995-96.

The teachers were nominated by their respective principals for outstanding performances in their first year of teaching.

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