2008 Voice of the Rivers
Follow along this year's VOR trip via the team's blog.
For the first time in seven years, Brevard College is launching a Voice of the Rivers trip during the summer of 2008. Ten students, along with Clyde Carter from the Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education program (WLEE) and Ken Chamlee from the English program, will follow the Savannah River watershed from its northernmost source at the headwaters of the Toxaway River down to Savannah, Georgia, where the trip will conclude. The 2008 adventure is the fourth river trip that BC students have taken since the inception of the VOR program in 1997.
In 1997, then BC President Tom Bertrand was approached by Dave Watkins of Kerr Manufacturing in Brevard about a possible college/community trip down the French Broad River. The full-semester adventure, led by faculty member Windy Gordon, took students from campus all the way to New Orleans via the Tennessee, Ohio, and Mississippi rivers.
The second venture in 1999 was a trip out of Henderson County down the Green River to Charleston, South Carolina, led by BC faculty member Clyde Carter.
In 2001 the VOR adventure went to Patagonia, Argentina, where participants spent three months taking their turn planning logistics, leading the group, and paddling the Rio Santa Cruz, Rio Limay and Rio Negro rivers. This trip was led by faculty member Robert Dye.
The fourth team will begin their journey with a weekend trip hiking and paddling the headwaters. They will start where the Toxaway River comes out of the ground and hike to Lake Toxaway. They will hike through Gorges State Park to Lake Jocassee and paddle to Lake Keowee. This trip takes place April 18th – 20th. On May 17th they will embark from the base of the Lake Jocassee dam and paddle their way to Savannah, studying and learning about the rivers they traverse. According to Carter, “Our goal is to learn all that we can about these rivers and the communities around them so that we can educate our BC community and the communities we come into contact with along our journey. This is how we become the voice of the river.”
The 2008 VOR team will pass Clemson, SC on the 19th of May, be in Augusta, GA on Memorial Day, May 26th, arrive in Savannah June 3rd, and finish at Tybee Island on June 4th. This year’s team is comprised of the following BC students: Scott Brown, John Greene, Margaret Medley, Jenna Pace, Carrilea Potter, Brian Randall, Merek Slagle, Elizabeth Thompson, Graham Tolbert and John Wargo. The student leader is Kelsey Bracewell and the logistics coordinator is James Davisson.
This trip is partly sponsored by Mountain Hardwear®, thanks to VOR ’99 alumnus Linley Bowyer. Bowyer works for Mountain Hardwear® in Richmond, California and leapt at the chance to support this year’s trip: “VOR had such an impact on my time at Brevard, I really felt it was important to try to help carry on that experience for other students.” Her company is supplying tents, sleeping bags, and raingear for the trip.
To contribute and support the 2008 VOR trip, contact Alston Williamson at 828-884-8213or williaar@brevard.edu.
Follow along this year's VOR trip via the team's blog.