Rosie Perkinson ‘24 and Amelia Dion ‘24 lace up their skates and step out onto the ice. The ice is slick at Leddy Park, but they are experienced skaters and take off immediately. They are soon joined by 45 other BHS students, some taking a bit more time to adjust to the glossy surface. All of them are part of BHS’s new “Outing Club”.

The Outing Club was founded at the beginning of the 2022-23 school year by student advisors Perkinson and Dion. The club goes on trips or “outings” about once a month to visit new places in Burlington and to try new activities.

“Burlington has so much to offer for outings and going outside and the Burlington area,” Laura Sercel, Social Studies teacher and advisor of the Outing Club said. “I think a lot of high school students don’t necessarily have opportunities to go explore the outdoors.”

For Sercel, the club is an amazing opportunity.

“I wish I had an outing club in high school because I didn’t really explore around me in New Hampshire,” Sercel said. “But if there [had been] a club that was leading events, so that the work was taken off of me, I would have totally done it.”

While the club is open to everyone, most of the members already know each other. “We’re all kind of friends, and it’s mostly just girls,” Dion said. “And when we’re going on our walks, we talk and everyone has a good time.” So far, the club has gone on several outings, including beach volleyball, a walk through Shelburne farms and a trip to the ice skating arena at Leddy Park.

“Ice skating [at] our last outing was really fun,” Sercel said. “I think people heard about it through their friends, and so a bunch of students that I have never met before, and our club leaders had never met before, decided to come and give it a try. And a lot of people who came had never ice skated before.”

For Dion, the club’s trip to Shelburne Farms was her favorite outing.

“I think that was one of the best ones that we’ve done so far, because we walked around and it was really fun,” Dion said. “There were a bunch of sheep out, and there were these cows and we just went over and hung out with the cows for a while.”

Sercel believes that most members are in the 11th grade because the two founding members are also Juniors. The leaders have identified this as a problem for the future of the club after they graduate and think they have a solution.

“We’re hoping next year to get some class representatives for each grade, and that might increase separate grade participation,” Perkinson said. “I hope it continues for as long as possible.”

If you are interested in participating in some of the Outing Club’s activities, there is a bulletin board outside room 124 (and posters found across the school) with a QR code you can scan and you can learn about upcoming events. Follow @bhsoutingclub on Instagram for more information.