Emily Hemelt

Fishing Out the Dock!

What's your favorite summertime activity? Mine would be either swimming with friends or paddling out on the water in a nice little canoe. If you're in the same boat, I've got good news: Dartmouth's got it! During the warmer months, students and members of the Hanover community can make the short walk to the Connecticut River, only about 10 minutes from the Green, and hop in a boat for a relaxing trip down the river. The water gets colder as chillier months arrive, when campus is filled with beautiful piles of snow, ice skaters on Occom Pond, and activities like Dartmouth's Winter Carnival! With this annual progression, there comes a time when we must lift the dock out of the water before the freeze. And this year, I got to help out!

The dock removal went something like this: we disassembled the floating dock piece by piece, members paddle boarded them to the stairs, and a team lifted them out of the water before stacking them next to the boathouse. As a prize for getting the dock out, we had a delicious Ledyard feed! What is that, you ask?

A feed is a free dinner cooked by members of the club every week, and this time, we were feasting on fried rice. The great thing about feeds is that they are an accessible and affordable way to have fun and socialize with club members. In Ledyard, I've really enjoyed going to events like this because I love meeting people interested in the same things as I am. At Dartmouth, clubs are a great way to try new things and explore new interests. However, after classes start picking up, it becomes harder to attend fifteen club meetings; as a result, you remain on the various organizations' GroupMes (messaging app), but you pick the clubs you're most interested in and begin prioritizing their meetings. So, it's a triple win: everyone gets to explore to discover unknown interests, there is something for everyone here after they learn their interests, and club members make for awesome friends. Because people have to selectively attend clubs, you see the same people at all of the meetings. For Ledyard, this means at least three times per week for meetings, feeds, and social events. Because of the frequency of seeing the same people, you become close with classmates who share your interests and would be down to partake in the activity you are interested in, whether it be hiking, mountain biking, surfing, or anything else (these activities are associated with the Dartmouth Outing Club, but there are also clubs that focus on areas of study or just having fun!).