By Kayla Villegas (Guest Writer)
“Dear Professor, my roommate locked me out of my room and now I am stuck in the Ferncliff Hallway, dripping wet, ashamed, and in a towel. Thankfully I had my phone on me to let you know I won’t be in class!” “Hi Dr. So-and-So, the CDR served their famous fish taco pizza and I just couldn’t resist the contradictory combination! Unfortunately the fish bit back and I’ve been ralphing all morning.” “Greetings. Yesterday was my 21st birthday, thus, I will not be in attendance for today’s class.”
Professors world-wide have accumulated a plethora of emails over the years filled with creative pseudo-excuses from students all begging for mercy from their undergraduate saviors. On Monday, however, when Wittenberg faculty members received the email, “I am stranded outside Pennsylvania due to harsh weather conditions,” the members of the Outdoors Club told no lie.
A group of 20 adventurous young men and women departed from the motor pool parking lot Friday evening with hopeful hearts, anticipating a jam-packed weekend of slopes, snow, and shredding ‘pow-pow’ (modern snowboard for lingo for fresh snow powder) for their annual ski trip at the Seven Springs Resort in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania.
While the valley proved happy for the club’s day of shredding on the mountain, as the group began to depart south back to Springfield, their plans went south instead.
Winter Advisories came into effect Sunday morning, proving to be a harsh reality for the club as they reached maximum speeds of 30 mph on the interstate highway. Wittenberg’s administration sprang into action as Dean John Young called Georgia Bennett, the trip’s coordinator, recommending the club to get off the road immediately. The group found safety at the local Comfort Inn located in Triadelphia, West Virginia, warmed by the hotel’s caring staff, fireplace, and freshly baked cookies.
“Given their reporting of the weather conditions they were facing and being aware of the overall weather conditions impacting states to the east of Ohio, safety was the number one priority,” said Dean Young.
Wittenberg University also has a policy on all motor pool vehicles, banning the cars from running under a level one winter storm advisory.
The club members offered mixed responses to the weather emergency. Junior and avid snowboarder Erika Rich felt nothing but sadness as her original plan to devote the day to her Financial Management course was also frozen over as she regrettably decided to pack light, sacrificing her Accounting textbook for long johns instead.
Junior Tobie Weston harbored opposite feelings as she was excited to get one more day to bond with her fellow club members in hopes to “further the organization’s camaraderie.” She added in her thankfulness for Wittenberg putting students’ safety as their first priority.
As the club spent their time in Triadelphia taking notes from the professionals via the Olympian skiers featured on channel eleven, the storm raged on outside; reassuring Administration that they had made the right call.
While the club made it back safely Monday afternoon, they all agree that the experience will forever unite the organization in a bond that words cannot describe. “We boarded together, we ate together, and we were stranded together. Those types of memories cannot be replicated or replaced. I’m so glad Student Senate gave us the opportunity to take this trip together,” said sophomore Trevor Villegas.
Arriving on campus with one sprained knee, twelve pre-packaged muffins (compliments of the Comfort Inn), and twenty snow-storm survivors, the Outdoors Club mutually agreed that the trip to Seven Springs will always be an unforgettable one.
Interested in joining Outdoor’s Club for a future adventure? Email Sarah Funderburg ats.14sfunderburg@exchange.wittenberg.edu for further information.
