NOLS, REI Co-Sponsor Free WFA
SEATTLE, WASH — The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is thrilled to announce that 30 young people from underserved communities in the Seattle area will have the opportunity to learn wilderness medicine skills to prepare them for future outdoor adventures free of charge.REI Outdoor School and NOLS are co-sponsoring a Wilderness First Aid (WFA) course covered by full-tuition scholarships on March 9 and 10. Students will include members of NOLS Gateway Partners, organizations that work with NOLS to provide full-tuition scholarships for young people from underserved communities to take NOLS courses. REI is providing its flagship store in Seattle as the course venue and helping cover the cost of faculty.
“This NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute course strengthens our Gateway partnerships by providing new avenues of collaboration,” said NOLS Diversity and Inclusion Director Aparna Rajagopal-Durbin. “It helps empower Gateway Partner students in the outdoors through essential basic wilderness medicine training.”
Rajagopal-Durbin commended the Seattle Metrocenter YMCA for coordinating this opportunity for Seattle’s aspiring and active outdoorspeople. Over the course of two and a half days, students from the Seattle Metrocenter YMCA Boys and Girls Outdoor Leadership Development (BOLD and GOLD) programs, as well as Summer Search, GirlTrek and Urban Wilderness Project, will learn how to care for people who become ill or injured where definitive medical care is not available. The WFA combines classroom lectures and demonstrations with realistic scenarios with mock patients that enable students to integrate the lessons.
“BOLD and GOLD programs go to many wild places, from climbing Mt. Baker to racing driftwood rafts on the Olympic Coast. This class gives our alumni a chance to take their skills to the next level for their own trips and as future leaders for the Y,” said Andrew Jay, national director of BOLD and GOLD.
If you are interested in taking this course, contact Robin Chiles at the Seattle Metrocenter YMCA at (206) 223-1622.
Founded in 1965 by legendary mountaineer Paul Petzoldt, NOLS is the leader in wilderness education, providing awe-inspiring, transformative experiences to 16,000 students each year. These students, ages 14 to over 80, learn in the wildest and most remote classrooms worldwide—from the Amazon rain forest, to rugged peaks in the Himalaya, to Alaskan glaciers and Arctic tundra. Graduates are active leaders with lifelong environmental ethics and outdoor skills. NOLS also offers customized courses through NOLS Professional Training, and the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute is the leading teacher of wilderness medicine worldwide. For more information, call (800) 710-NOLS (6657) or visit www.nols.edu.
Topics: Press Releases
