Congratulations to Survival Club Level I Participants
By Jesse Gagnon, Student & Family Programs Coordinator and Club Admin
On Tuesday, November 1, Golden History Museum & Park celebrated its inaugural group of Survival Club Level I participants. Over eight weeks, 21 children aged 6 to 12 worked hard to earn their Survival Club certificates after school at the Golden History Park.
Survival Club was taught by Colorado native and expert survivalist Aaron “Hutch” Hutchings.
Hutch’s many professional accomplishments include a career in the Marine Corps, Youth Program Director for The Survival University, and owner of Ready Set Adventure Box. However, his passion for the outdoors began as a child growing up in the Rocky Mountains with a real mountain man and hunting guide he called Grandpa.
Over the course of this eight-week after-school program, Hutch introduced participants to survival skills ranging from signaling, navigation, knife safety, fire safety, and shelter building. For each skill, Hutch showed the kids how to take advantage of their natural surroundings, whether using the sun to communicate distress or pine needles to help start a fire.
With this program we hoped to introduce club participants to skills that were invaluable to early residents of Colorado and show them how these skills are still valuable today. Hutch is really a fabulous teacher because everything must be hands-on. On knife day everybody learned proper knife safety, but every club participant also got to practice with their very own knife, even our youngest participants. The children were having fun and learning new skills, while also learning the responsibility that comes with their new knowledge. My hope is that this sampler program allows kids to explore a variety of skills that they can later build upon during more focused programming.
We are currently planning the 2023 lineup of programming featuring Hutch. Our fall 2022 Survival Club sold out! To be the first to learn about future Hutch programs, considering fill out our online interest form or subscribe our e-news so you do not miss out on any of our events or programs.
