Film festival to support outdoor education

SANDPOINT — The Panida Theater will show the Winter Wildland Alliance Backcountry Film Festival on Jan. 10 to raise funds for youth outdoor education. 

Proceeds from the event will support local nonprofit Selkirk Outdoor Leadership & Education’s SnowSchool program, which takes local students into the Selkirk Mountains and educates them about science and the outdoors. 

The festival’s films center on winter sports and human-powered endeavors; this year’s movies feature skiing, snowboarding and dog sledding at sites across the U.S. and the world — including Antarctica. 

Between movies, prizes including goods donated by local outdoor retailers and a former Schweitzer ski lift chair will be raffled off to support SnowSchool. 

For the past decade, every fifth grader in Lake Pend Oreille School District has participated in SOLE’s free three-day program, which centers on snowpack analysis and data literacy. 

“Our snowpack is an important resource because we get 80% of our fresh water from it,” said Dennison Webb, SOLE founder and executive director. 

Students start in the classroom by learning ecological fundamentals like the water cycle before visiting the mountains to learn how to navigate the winter backcountry and examine factors like snow depth and density. When they return to the classroom, “they’re able to look at what they collected in the field, compare it to what the historical trends are, and then generate conclusions,” Webb said.

Those findings inform students about real-world issues like water supply and wildfire risk and help them better understand their local environment. 

Webb said the screening is family-friendly and an ideal opportunity to connect with recreationists in the community. 

“It's a really fun event — really low key,” Webb said. “Just come celebrate winter.” 

Information: https://bit.ly/41WdIe5