Hay River (July 02/01) - A group of Hay River students walked out of the bush with a better understanding of how to walk softly and safely on the land, through a special camp put on last week.
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Risk Watch is a comprehensive safety training program that deals with all forms of accident and injury prevention and how to handle emergency situations. Hug-A-Tree and Survive teaches children what to do if lost in the woods.
Mitchell and the 24 children worked together on eight safety sessions -- once each month in the school.
"At the end, we needed to do an activity that incorporates all the safety that we learned in class," Mitchell said.
The group had a safety briefing at school before heading out to the Hay River Campground. Once at camp, each child made an impression of their footprint for identification of their shoe pattern.
The troop reviewed survival skills and made ponchos from beach towels and the children all were issued nametags and a whistle. The class also reviewed search and rescue skills and made an SOS signal from logs on the beach.
Teacher Kim Ivanko said her class was also studying environmental science through the year, so to get an up-close view of the world, they incorporated the safety camp with earth science.
"We put together an environmental program and combined it with the Risk Watch program," she said.
The class took a day trip to Louise Falls and to the town dump, where they learned about waste management.
"We talked about ways the students could reduce their waste and they were really surprised by how much they produce," she said.
Some things can't be learned from books and the class motto for the year was "Teamwork and Respect."
Ivanko says the students lived the motto at camp.
"Everything is done in pairs or buddies or teams," she said. "Everything from doing dishes to making meal -- basically just helping each other out."
"The way they've come together since last August is really incredible."
Student Kerali Ewasik said she enjoyed the camp and the skills taught.
"We're learning about camping and how to survive," Ewasik said. "We're also learning how to scratch, from all the bug bites."
Ivanko said while the camp was a lot of work the kids also had a good deal of fun, with swimming in the still-chilly Great Slave Lake, an obstacle course and plenty of play.
"They worked hard all year and this is a little reward," she said. "It's good for them to get out and have a little fun."
