This week our Leaders' Group visited Sewell Park to learn how to build shelters out of natural materials.
The survival skills class is every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon through the end of July.
A Message from Jason Baker, our survival skills instructor:
Humans today are insulated from the natural world. Our interactions are as a tourist. Even when we camp, we insulate ourselves behind tent walls, sleeping pads, and bags. When we hike, we speed from destination to destination, often missing the rich environment we pass through. What most of us have failed to discover is the rich belonging and connection to all things that can be gained through the immersion in our natural world. Our Survival Skills Class with Jason Baker teaches:
- The Sacred Order of Survival - Shelter, Fire, Water, Food
- How to build an effective shelter quickly that will keep a person dry and warm even in extreme winter weather
- How to make fire from friction
- How to find clean water and purify it for human consumption.
- How to forage and find food in Nature
In the process of learning these basic wilderness survival techniques many other areas will be learned and taught such as:
- Track location and identification
- Plant and animal identification
- Habitat exploration and understanding the web of life
- How heat moves and natural things with insulating properties
- Awareness of what is around us in the woods as well as awareness of how we affect the wilderness and each other
- How to safely make a fire
- How to safely use a knife
- Movement through a wilderness environment
- Individual and team work
