Book & Calendar
Gallery Assistant Needed!
GALLERY ASSISTANT NEEDED
at Northwest Passage
Help us connect our kids with the world at large
Why we need you:
As a Gallery Assistant, you can help to ensure our customers receive the best possible service and enjoy our kids’ work and what it has to offer. Join the gang and help to get the word out about our kids and their art!
What skills do you need?
We are looking for passionate volunteers who are enthusiastic about the work of Northwest Passage. You will have good communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to get along with people and work as part of a team. You will need basic retail checkout skills and clerical skills would be a bonus!
What will you be doing?
– Talking to customers and making them feel welcome at the Gallery.
– Operating the till and dealing with various types of payment using our Square-Up payment system.
– Answering customer questions and take custom orders.
– Working on weekends! Hours are 10 am to 4 pm on Saturdays.
What support will we give you?
We will provide all the training you need to feel confident in the role. The Gallery coordinator to give advice and assist you, as well as other experienced team members as you get started. On the weekends you would be alone, but help is just a phone call away!
What benefits do you get?
– The satisfaction of knowing you are making a vital difference to the life transforming work of Northwest Passage.
– Learning new skills and gaining retail experience.
– The enjoyment of meeting new people!
– Still interested? Watch some of our videos below to see the work you’ll be supporting!
Where will you be based?
You’ll be in Webster, Wisconsin at Northwest Passage’s InaNewLight Gallery.
How do you apply?
Email us today at: marke@nwpltd.org.
Watch some videos about our work!
Riverside heads to Feed my Starving Children
THE BOYS AT RIVERSIDE LEARNED A LESSON OR TWO AND WHILE LENDING A HELPING HAND
This month some residents of Northwest Passage Riverside made a real and tangible difference in the lives of children around the world. They did so by donating their time and money to the Coon Rapids-based charity “Feed My Starving Children.”
Students had been studying about South America and Africa in geography class. In addition to learning about the interesting physical features and positive cultural aspects of these continents, students were introduced to the harsh reality of severe poverty that sometimes afflicts children and adults in these (and other) parts of the world.
The goal of the lessons on poverty was not to heap guilt or hopelessness upon our residents, but rather to raise awareness and to prepare them to make a real difference by turning a situation of despair into one of hope.
In preparation for the field trip, residents were given the opportunity to donate their hard-earned “school bucks” (our incentive program at the Riverside School). Many of our students responded to the call and donated a total of $62.75 to the cause of feeding hungry people around the world. (The students’ school bucks were traded in for real dollars at a healthy exchange rate).
At the facility we were given a brief orientation to the goals and impact of Feed My Starving Children and the procedures for making the food packs. After this, three staff with 11 residents helped to scoop, weigh, bag, seal, and box meal packs that were going to be shipped to needy areas around the world. The food packs (called “Manna Packs”) consisted of a vitamin mix, dried vegetables, soy filler, and rice. The cost to produce one of these packs, which make 6 – 12 servings, is a mere 22 cents. The low cost is partially due to the fact that much of the labor needed to produce the Manna Packs is completed by volunteers – like our group of boys from NWP Riverside. Our young men worked energetically and cooperatively to produce numerous boxes of potentially life-saving meals. One resident was so focused on his task in the effort that he refused to take a water break. And while our residents were engaged in serious work, they also had a lot of fun volunteering at the facility with other local school groups. They enthusiastically cheered whenever they completed a box and some of them even felt comfortable enough to loudly sing along to some songs being piped through the facility speakers.
At the conclusion of our shift, we were thanked for our hard work and donation. We also were given a sample of the Manna Pack meals that we had been making. The director of the facility then shared the total number of packs produced at the facility during the shift – enough to provide over 35,000 meals. While this effort involved more than our small group of students, I am very proud of our residents’ contributions in time, energy, and resources to make it happen.
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Prairieview at the Birkebeiner!
SEE THIS HISTORIC SKI EVENT THROUGH THE EYES OF OUR KIDS
Six young ladies from Prairieview traveled north and braved the bone-chilling rain to volunteer and capture some special moments of the skiers as they traverse the trail in their final miles.
The 43rd American Birkebeiner took place over the past weekend and Northwest Passage was there to capture the action. The young ladies of Prairieview volunteered at the Gravel Pit Aid Station with helping hands. They passed out water, energy drinks, and snacks to the racers. Some of the fastest cross country skiers in the world were on hand along with dedicated citizen racers from around the country. The girls from Prairieview not only volunteered but captured the excitement and emotion of the ski marathon with their cameras.
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Building Character with Marshmallows!
Building marshmallow towers, building character, just another day at Prairieview
It is easy to take for granted the power of character and how we develop the very mental and moral qualities special to each of us, but here at Passage we work every single day to nurture healthy “characters.”
Each week, the ladies at Prairieview participate in “Character Development” group. The group teaches the girls about 14 character traits, such as respect, honesty, integrity, compassion, empathy, perseverance, tolerance and character. The goal of the group is to educate and inspire the girls to treat one another with respect and kindness. The group also educates them on the difference between inevitable conflict and bullying – a core theme of the group. The girls participate in group discussion, team building exercises, projects, activities, and even have take away work to reflect on their experiences.
Recently, the girls had a team exercise to wrap up the latest cycle of their group. The challenge was to build the tallest structure their group could in just 12 minutes! Each group was allowed: spaghetti noodles, different sized marshmallows, and 1 object of their choice to build their tower. The structures had to be free standing. Each group approached the challenge differently, but they were all successful in collaborating and practicing the traits they have learned about!
Brittany Bosak – Prairieview Teacher
WANT TO HELP OUR TEACHERS DO MORE IN THE CLASSROOM? CONSIDER A DONATION TODAY!
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Prairieview makes friends with the horses
The girls enjoy making friends with the horses during horse therapy. Check out some of their reflections and photos from some of their sessions this summer.
I built a neat relationship with Telly. Telly is my baby. I would call him my horse. My bro. My bestie for the restie. I hope I’m able to see him again. He’s something I’m thankful for. He makes me smile!
-Leah
You make your own pains in life, like we made our paths today. And the fact our paths coincide with each other shows how we came together at Passage.
-Diane
Tully (Freedom’s Call)
I feel as though I cultivated a budding relationship with him. He was fun to just be around and work with! I wish I could bond with him more, like twice a week so he could get to know me better. Would they stop being so shy if they saw me more often? Or would they just stay shy? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Ha ha!
-Diane
I really enjoyed being out here. It was an awesome incentive to go home and stay out of the 4th floors… I loved getting to work with the horses and the little guys. I guess they all have their own personalities. I’ve always wanted to work with animals when I get older. Or even once I get out of Passage. Thanks for letting us come out here ladies!
-Abby
Adios (Pony)
I liked the pony. Well all of them but me and the pony had a lot in common. I relate to the pony because he tends to run away from people/or doesn’t trust them. That is totally me. It’s hard for me to trust people but I can always work on it.
-Siarra
I have trouble building relationships with other people. I don’t have trust issues, I’m not shy, I just don’t connect with people as others do. I feel like I came from another planet and I have to learn how to relate to these people on earth. I feel as though this is reflected in the way I interacted with the horses. I can be nice, I can be friendly and talk about things other people and I have in common, but usually it doesn’t get much farther than that. I can like a person, get along with a person, and we can call each other best friends. But there’s always this subtle barrier that makes me believe that my relationships with people aren’t as deep as they could be.
-Lydia
We all need a partner in
life’s journey
Whether it’s an animal or a person
it doesn’t matter
Love is love, isn’t it?
-Abby
Connecting with Earth, Art, and Soul – Pottery at Riverside
“Clay work is like the Cinderella of the art therapies. She still waits to be discovered with her magic, her beauty and her ability to transform the wells of human suffering into places of insight and celebration. Her dark earthly solid mass, often appearing in greyish, brownish or terracotta dress, is hardly alluring at first sight. Touching this sticky cold mass, you sense she has a longing and determination to merge with your skin.” – Sherwood, 2010
Soggy, sticky, and not necessarily visually appealing, clay sets itself apart from other mediums. While creating ceramic pieces, there is a level of hands-on involvement that is absent from other forms of art. Its malleability is very appealing to everyone who touches it. It can be squeezed, squashed, and rolled; holding the form a person molds it into. It takes on whatever texture the creator impresses on it.
For these reasons the residents of Northwest Passage often express the comfort that working with clay brings them and their desire to use it as a “fidget”, which is a coping strategy means to calm or distract them. But ceramics provide the residents of Northwest Passage with much more than just a sensory tool; it provides them with the opportunity to gain competency in a new skill.
It is not uncommon for the residents to express hesitance and a lack of confidence when beginning ceramics, adamantly insist that they will never be able to complete the task given to them, let alone master it. Some even try to throw in the towel halfway through class when challenges arise on their way to their end goal. But with time and encouragement the residents start to fully understand how the material works and begin to master the techniques needed to achieve the task that they set out to complete.
The ultimate reward comes when their pieces emerge from the kiln after the glaze firing for the first time, all shiny and bright. There is something really special about seeing for the first time something that you created with your hands that is so tangible, solid, and permanent. For many residents this is an “I can” moment. A moment when they get to hold a ceramic piece in their hands that is a physical representation of how time and effort can and will result in something wonderful.
The notion that effort will result in a better outcome is something that is essential for all people who want to obtain a goal, but is especially important for the residents of Northwest Passage to know, as they are overcoming challenges that are seem insurmountable to the most people. Ceramics is a tool that is used to help the residents to know what it means to learn a skill, practice it, and ultimately succeed.
Experiences like these give the residents of Northwest Passage a sense of confidence and pride that will allow them to see their past experiences as challenges to overcome as opposed to an impassable road block.
Jae Mawby, Northwest Passage, In a New Light Intern – Summer 2015
The boys of Riverside filmed the assembly of their new pottery wheel. They had a blast and we hope you enjoy watching them in action.
Northwest Passage Riverside is a residential treatment abode for boys learning to deal with intense mental health struggles. Aptly named, Riverside is situated along the calm banks of the Clam River, in Northwestern Wisconsin and proves to be a place of both healing and building new connections with everything from self to nature. Be it enjoying the grounds, including a private peninsula, or taking part in the powerful and unique experiential based therapy programming, these boys have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to heal at Northwest Passage.
Same great place, just a few new names
As Friends of Northwest Passage, we wanted to let you in on a little secret, this month Northwest Passage’s residential treatment programs will have new names. The program names you’re familiar with are being updated to reflect the scenic environments in which each program is located.
Our name change is just that; the same great organization and team will be here to serve your loved ones and clients.
Check out our new names!
Passage I (PI), located in Webster, WI on the Clam River, is now known as Northwest Passage Riverside
Passage II (PII), located in Spooner, WI on Rooney Lake, is now known as Northwest Passage Lakeshore
Passage III (PIII), located in Frederic, WI situated near the prairie, is now known as Northwest Passage Prairieview
Child & Adolescent Center (Assessment), located in Frederic, WI, will remain the same
Why did we chose to change the program’s names?
Northwest Passage’s board recognized the need to update our program names to better reflect the experience that our clients have while at Northwest Passage. After a thoughtful process of name selection, we are proud to announce these new names: Riverside, Lakeshore, and Prairieview. We feel they will communicate to the world where caregivers and professionals are sending their children and clients.
So, when you visit our website, talk to our team, or see a story about our kids, you’ll hear us referencing our new names next month. But be patient, some of us have been referring to our program names for decades, so it will take us a little time to get used to it. The running joke is that the new names are actually: Passage one… I mean Riverside; Passage two, I mean Lakeshore; and Passage three, I mean Prairieview.
If you have questions regarding these name changes, please contact your connection here at Northwest Passage or myself, Marceleen Mosher (Development and Communications Coordinator).
Adventures in Drake Bay and Sierpe
1-12-15
Yesterday we emerged from the wild jungles of Corcovado National Park. With photos of over 130 different animal species under our belts, as well as the scrapes, bites, bruises, and satisfied sense of exhaustion reminding us that we earned every one, we settled into our rented cottage in the beach town of Drake Bay for an evening of rest.
Today, we jumped back behind our lenses for some new subject matter. We took a boat to the river town of Sierpe, and met up with the superintendent of Terraba-Sierpe National Wetlands, Jaime Gonzalez Acosta.
Jaime is a kindred spirit. The moment he jumped in our boat his eyes lit up, and he began sharing everything he knew about his beloved wetlands with an inspiring sense of excitement and curiosity. An avid photographer himself, he coached Renny and Ethan in the techniques of capturing the unique character of the place as we spent the next six hours slowly navigating the wetland’s circuitous river channels. We spotted huge crocodiles with awesomely alarming frequency, and watched “our” migratory green heron hunt in the shallows from 15 feet away, camera shutters snapping every step of the way.
Yet another day that words cannot even begin to capture. A few photos will have to suffice.
-Ben
Day 3 at Corcovado National Park
Today we were going to hike to a cave with bats known to live there, but we only made it about 8 miles total. We traveled through the hot, steep, sandy beaches; the thick dense jungle; and the wet muddy lowlands. On the way we encountered a ospray eating a freshly caught fish, and while we where watching the ospray, a 9 foot crocodile came swimming out of the backwaters and up onto a far beach. We decided to stalk the crocodile and ended up with some absolutely phenomenal pictures of him sunning – and a lucky shot of him as he spotted us and tore off down the beach into the water. Later, we encountered several migratory species of bird common to Wisconsin. It is amazing the journey that these tiny little creatures make. We also saw some incredibly brilliant colored macaws – getting some great shots of the resting and flying poses. The midday rest on the beach and swim in the ocean was greatly needed and deserved. All in all, today was fantastic and was a once in a lifetime experience.
-Ethan
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