We call her “Margi,” as she considers “Mrs. Missling-Root” too formal. Margi has over 40 years of experience in outdoor education, and her specialty is educating high school students about the natural world. She has been a naturalist, backcountry instructor, guide and since 1978, and she has led a global studies trip for Steamboat Mountain School almost every year, 37 in all. There are few continents Margi has not traveled thoroughly. The programs she manages include outdoor activities of all kinds, camping, foreign travel, and community service. Margi feels the tops of mountains and the shores of foreign locales feed the minds and souls of our students. Having a keen interest in plants, she is a master gardener and also the school’s landscape designer. Margi is a firm believer in the mind body connection; she studies natural healing and meditation. She raised her son, Bridger (Steamboat Mountain School `07) on campus, has trained service dogs, and plants trees and gardens wherever the earth needs enrichment. She loves to sing, play the guitar, meditate, garden, garden, garden, hike, backcountry ski, snowshoe, and take walks with her very smart dog, Lorax. Margi educates students and guides the Experiential Education Program with this quote by Luther Standing Bear. “The old Lakotas were wise. They knew that a person’s heart away from nature would become hard. They knew that a lack of respect for growing and living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too. So they kept their youth close to the earth’s softening influence.”