Every May, East Side Community High School devotes one week to a Week Without Walls, a four-day experience designed to allow students to explore a passion outside the academic curriculum. Classes are suspended, and students go off into the world in small groups, each group focused on a particular theme.

Our group - Animals and the Country - is made up of 10 middle school and high school students who are passionate about animals and nature. Our four-day experience will include a visit to a wolf sanctuary, where packs of roaming wolves will surround us in a beautiful natural backdrop, and students will have the opportunity to study wolves' eating patterns and social structures. On other days we'll embark on a hike with a pack of pups, visit a rescue farm outside NYC, and horseback ride along idyllic trails. Each day will take city kids away from Downtown Manhattan, and into the countryside for fresh air, physical activity, and interactions with animals and nature.

We'll be partnering with an organization called Discover Outdoors, which, because we are a Title 1 school (meaning a high percentage of our students are low income and qualify for free or reduced-price lunch), has generously agreed to fund 50% of the program cost...so long as we can raise the balance ourselves through our own fundraising. 

While our kids are doing some individual fundraising, we need your help! To help cover the cost of transportation, guides, and entry fees, we'd be so grateful if you'd consider making a donation.

Help these city kids to get out of the city for a few days, and to explore their passion for animals and the tranquility of nature!

Thank you so much for your donations, and help spread the word!