RE's ninth graders have returned from five-day, four-night treks through the Ten Thousand Islands as part of the annual Everglades Experience. Departing in four waves from January to early March of 2023, the students paddled canoes through the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, relying on compasses and peers traveling with them to find their way from various locations to base camp. They faced difficult paddles through mangrove tunnels, spent nights sleeping on "boarded-up" canoes, endured rain and wind, and enjoyed opportunities to watch the sun rise. Photo Gallery
RE physical education teacher Tim McAllister oversaw the trips in 2022-23, ensuring that students prepared during their PE classes by learning to paddle canoes, use compasses and work together on the water.
After faculty emeritus Mike Stokes arrived to the Ransom School as a teacher in 1962, he founded the annual Everglades trip for ninth graders that is currently led by the North Carolina Outward Bound School. The Everglades Experience harks back to when RE was known as the Adirondack-Florida School at the turn of the 20th century, providing the opportunity for students to divide time between the Adirondacks of New York and Coconut Grove.
Founded in 1903, Ransom Everglades School is a coeducational, college preparatory day school for grades 6 - 12 located on two campuses in Coconut Grove, Florida. Ransom Everglades School produces graduates who "believe that they are in the world not so much for what they can get out of it as for what they can put into it." The school provides rigorous college preparation that promotes the student's sense of identity, community, personal integrity and values for a productive and satisfying life, and prepares the student to lead and to contribute to society.