By Owen Lee, Staff Writer
UMass Dartmouth’s Outdoor Club is one of the oldest and most active organizations on our campus. It’s a popular activity-based group focused on physical exercise and creating a small community of like-minded people that love nature.
The Outdoor Club actually dates back to when UMass was still known as Southeastern Massachusetts University, when it was known as the Adventure Club, decades ago.
The club participates in a large number of different physical activities, including hiking, ice-skating, canoeing, and lazer tag. There are also weekly Wednesday night trips to Carabiner’s rock-climbing facility in New Bedford, at a discounted student price.
They travel to local areas for a wide range of activities, like hiking in Purgatory Chasm in Sutton and canoeing at Osprey Sea & Surf in Westport.
They also frequently travel out-of-state to places all over New England, like Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire, and they’re planning to travel to Acadia National Park in Maine soon.
The current club president, Sierra Renaghan, thinks highly of the club. “The point is to just do fun things,” She told The Torch. “We try to do at least one trip a week, including rock climbing on Wednesdays.”
She joined in her freshman year, and previously managed the eBoard with other club members, and also served as the club secretary to get more involved.
The Outdoor Club recently gained a new advisor in Eric Petersen, who stepped up after the previous advisor, Wes Highley, stepped down.
“My job as an advisor is to support the club’s organizational mission. I go to a meeting once a month, but I work a lot behind the scenes.“ Petersen tells The Torch. “The club’s still all about providing students opportunities to get out in nature and explore.”
Anyone interested in the Outdoor Club can meet with them at Campus Center room 007, every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
They have simple applications on their MyOrgs page for interested students.
At the meetings, members plan and prepare for upcoming trips. Currently there are more than 20 members, but the Outdoors Club is always looking for new members!