Students brush up on survival

Stikine Middle School seventh graders buzzed around Shoemaker Shelter lighting fires one afternoon last week.

Instead of committing a spree of wanton teenage vandalism, students were learning skills essential to life in Southeast. One by one, they took turns starting a fire using a nine-volt battery and steel wool as well as flint and steel to light cotton balls smeared with Vaseline – all under careful supervision and in designated fire areas. They also practiced building shelters from natural materials, and on the second day at the public pool, using life jackets, "Gumby" style survival suits and life rafts.

While the Nov. 7 and 8 classes weren't all life-or-death grimness – the weenie roast seemed particularly popular – the skills students learned were intended to prepare them for life in the sometimes hazardous great outdoors, said instructor Jack Carney.

"It's pretty much just getting people ready to go out in boats," he said. "We're going to just give the training so kids know - if they go overboard - they know what to do."

The skills are vital, and not just for students who might work the summer on a fishing boat or climb into a moose tree stand in the fall, Carney said.

"Think of how many fishermen you have in this community, and hunters," he said. "Even if you aren't an outdoorsy person, you're probably still going to get on a speedboat to go to (Prince of Wales) Island."

Alaska Marine Safety Education Association instructor Mike Morris had come from Sitka to help Carney and middle school teacher Winston Davies learn how to become instructors for the association's program. When the association received a grant this year to help Southeast school systems with outdoor education, Wrangell schools agreed to let AMSEA instructors teach students, and Morris returned this year.

"We did a little bit more land survival stuff this trip," he said.

The school system has had a long-time practice of taking eighth grade students on a trip to nearby Vank Island to introduce them to similar concepts in early spring, said middle school principal Monty Buness, who in the past has accompanied the students on their trip.

"The eighth grade culminating experience for the last 20 plus years has been taking the whole crew over to Vank Island and doing marine safety activities," he said. "I go every year, my wife goes every year."

"I took Winston (Davies) out when he was in Middle School," Buness added. "That's how long it's been going on."

The Vank Island trip has focused on marine survival, as opposed to the recent clinic for middle school students, which focused on both land and sea survival skills.

The curriculum, including starting fires, is drawn from potential real world situations, Morris said.

"Matches are not always failsafe," he said. "I like to have a backup system. A lot of people will have the fireproof, windproof matches, but the striker gets wet. Some of them in those little wood boxes have water-soluble glue, and they'll just fall apart."

AMSEA has several different curriculums tailored to the needs of different grades, Morris said.

Despite a chill and some rain, students like 13-year-old Ashtyn Hayes said they enjoyed themselves.

"It's fun, pretty cool, learning how to build a fort, start fires," he said. "Every year I go up the river, and I always go in the woods with my cousins."

While his favorite part was probably learning how to build a shelter, the most important part was learning how to keep warm if you get lost in the woods, Ashtyn said.

"You don't always have a lighter with you," he said.