Northampton 12-year-old organizes hike to benefit Rainforest Trust
NORTHAMPTON — In the blazing August heat last year, 12-year-old Saraphina Forman hiked 8 miles up a section of the Grand Canyon with her mother, her sisters and two family friends. They started their trek at 3 a.m. to avoid the worst of the hot summer sun.
Now, as spring makes its arrival, the nature-loving sixth-grader at Lander-Grinspoon Academy is offering a less rigorous opportunity for Valley hikers to show their appreciation for the outdoors.
Saraphina has organized “Hike For What’s Right,” a 4-mile-hike Sunday in the Mineral Hills Conservation area in Florence to benefit the Rainforest Trust, a charity that purchases tropical forests with the aim of protecting the land and saving endangered wildlife. The hike starts at 10 a.m. Parking is near the entrance of the trail on Sylvester Road. The hike costs $10 for individuals or $25 for a family. So far, she has rallied nine participants to sign up.
Talking about this endeavor in her family’s Washington Avenue home, Saraphina said she first became interested in helping to save tropical habitats two years ago after reading an article in school. At that time, she was a fourth-grader at Jackson Street School, and became inspired to learn more about the dangers facing the world’s rain forests.
“They are getting destroyed and taken down,” she said. “So many things live in them — like people, animals, plants — that are so important, and they’re all going to be gone soon.”
According to National Geographic Society, rain forests face a constant threat from industries such as logging, agriculture, electricity and mining, for which trees are cut down and forestland is cleared. More than half of the world’s rain forests have been lost due to the demands of these industries, and rain forests that once grew over 14 percent of the land on Earth now cover about 6 percent, according to the society’s website.
Saraphina started walking dogs and doing other chores in her neighborhood to help raise money for various charities, but wanted to fundraise on a larger scale. She decided to organizing a hike, she said, because it seemed like something that a lot of people can do.
“People can do it almost anywhere. It’s a great activity for all ages, and you get a chance to notice things and be in nature,” Saraphina said. “You can do it with friends, family, by yourself, and you don’t have to own anything special to do it, like a bicycle. You can just do it with yourself.”
With the encouragement of her family, she started to plan. She chose Mineral Hills, she said, because the looped-trail provides different options for hikers of all ages and abilities. She designed a flier on the computer, and created a website on Webs.com.
“It’s the best way to get the most people,” she said of her decision to start a website. She found Webs through a Google search. “I thought that fliers wouldn’t exactly be enough.”
She came up with the title of the event, as well as the slogan, “In the forest, for the forest.” She distributed the fliers around the city and in the schools with the help of her dad, Steve Forman of Whately.
Her mother, Suzanne Forman, said she hopes this sets an example for Saraphina’s peers by showing them that it is possible for young people to foster change. As well as hiking the Grand Canyon, Saraphina and her family stay active year-round, including mother and daughter riding their bicycles to school every day since the school year started, even through winter. She also has two sisters, Odelia, 15, and Isabella, 17, both students at Northampton High School.
Suzanne Forman laughed as she recalled days where the weather was particularly unpleasant.
“I looked at Saraphina and I said, ‘You sure you don’t want to drive?’ And she said, ‘No, we’re biking,’” she said.
In this way, she said, her daughter inspires her, and she is hoping the hike does the same for others.
“It just never would have occurred to me to attempt the challenge of riding bikes in the winter. Saraphina just made me realize that it was something I could do.” she said. “Many of us, maybe most of us, can do more than we think we’re capable of, and Saraphina inspires me to try.”
For more information on “Hike For What’s Right” and to learn how to register, visit hikeforwhatsright.webs.com or call Suzanne Forman at 374-8668.
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