PEHDZEH KI/WRIGLEY - A former Fort Providence teacher was travelling through a few Deh Cho communities in September to help youth learn about outdoor survival skills.

Greg Reardon, who once taught outdoor education at Deh Gah school, was in Wrigley from Sept. 1 to Sept. 4. He also made stops in Trout Lake and Jean Marie River..

Ryatt Cli, 10, left, holds up Treven Cli, 9, with Greg Reardon during an outdoor education exercise in Wrigley at chief Julian Yendo School in early September. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photos

Reardon "came up and did a whole bunch of different things," said Brooke Suwala, a teacher at the Chief Julian Yendo School in Wrigley

"He did water safety and rescue with the kids, he taught them how to use bear bangers, satellite phones, binoculars - he also did orienteering with the kids."

In the orienteering course, the students had to navigate around Wrigley and area using birds-eye-view photos of the town.

"He taught the kids how to throw a throw-rope, and how to rescue a person" from a body of water, said Suwala.

"With the younger kids, they practised on shore, and with the older kids he actually jumped in the water and they actually rescued him from the (Mackenzie) River," Suwala added.

Part of the training included the proper way to coil a rope to prevent it from knotting when the next person tries to throw it out into the water.

Suwala said he thought the kids enjoyed the lessons.

"They already have a lot of outdoor skills, but I don't think many of them have used binoculars or actually heard a bear banger before," said Suwala.

"The last day he was here we did a big hike out to the campground and we did a water boil contest, played some capture-the-flag."

Suwala said the water boil contest was a race to see who could build a fire using gathered material a make a can of water boil were fastest.

The students who won the contest were Allan Moses, 10, Ethan Cli, 10, Rochelle Yendo, 11, and Angel Baton, 6.

Rochelle Yendo said the workshop was fun and her favourite part was the orienteering course. She said she hopes to do more outdoors training, though she doesn't think she'll need to use many of the skills while she's just out fishing.

Kent Bratton, the principal of Chief Julian Yendo School, said the outdoor education was all thanks to Lois Philipp, the principal of Deh Gah School in Fort Providence.

Philipp "got lots of funding through a large grant for the region," said Bratton.

"Last year she was running all sorts of outdoor camps near Fort Providence for different age groups," added Bratton. "She found that it was difficult to get lots of the kids from the other communities out to Fort Providence, so she decided that instead of bringing the kids to Fort Providence, she'd bring (Reardon) to where the kids are," Bratton added.

Bratton said Reardon works with the school staff to develop an outdoor education workshop appropriate to the community, tailored to match the material available in the community and the geographical and environmental realities of the region.