{"id":251772,"date":"2026-06-02T02:51:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251772\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T02:51:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T02:51:09","slug":"brooklyn-park-teacher-to-paddle-1k-miles-on-mississippi-to-help-students-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/251772\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn Park teacher to paddle 1K miles on Mississippi to help students heal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) &#8211; A north metro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/education\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">teacher<\/a> is turning a personal adventure into a mission to help students recover from a tough year.<\/p>\n<p> Canoeing for a cause: Supporting students through outdoor experiences   <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Tyler Sassaman, a reading instructor at Prairie Seeds Academy, is preparing to paddle 1,000 miles from Lake Itasca to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">But instead of his usual summer canoe trips on Lake of the Isles, he will be paddling for a purpose.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Dig deeper:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sassaman came up with the idea after noticing some of his students at the Hmong charter school were too scared to attend class during the federal immigration crackdown last winter.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">He wanted to help them heal by getting them outdoors.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;The outdoors is so restorative, emotionally, physically being physically challenged. These are deeply human things that happen when we get outdoors,&#8221; said Sassaman.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">Local perspective:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sassaman has spent the past 12 summers as an instructor at Voyageur Outward Bound in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">He hopes to raise $20,000 through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/paddling-for-a-purpose-the-mississippi-1000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a crowdfunding campaign<\/a> to pay for field trips, overnights and three-week-long wilderness stays for students at Prairie Seeds Academy.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sassaman plans to paddle up to 30 miles a day over seven weeks, all while exploring the history of the country during its 250th anniversary.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;I&#8217;m doing what I can with what I know how. So, this is what I could do,&#8221; said Sassaman.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What they&#8217;re saying:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sassaman is motivated by the thought of helping his students.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">&#8220;What will keep me going is all this money and this challenge is going to kids at Prairie Seeds to get outside and enjoy the world, feel safe,&#8221; said Sassaman.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KMSP\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">He will begin his journey on June 19 and plans to share updates on his paddling for a purpose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61584406991824#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook page<\/a> for those interested in following along.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/us\/mn\/hennepin-county\/brooklyn-park\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brooklyn Park<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/us\/mn\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/education\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Education<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/tag\/people\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">People<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (FOX 9) &#8211; A north metro teacher is turning a personal adventure into a mission&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,5796,67,9230,9229,9,24,12,63,1232,618],"class_list":["post-251772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-brooklyn-park","tag-education","tag-hennepin-county","tag-mn","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-people","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}