Program Abstract:
The Primitive Survival Skills Program is conducted under the auspices of the Gatherer Institute, a non-profit organization based in South Toms River, dedicated to the ideal of each individual living up to the full extent of his or her God-given potential.
The program will be a week-long summer camp for grades 8-12, and another week-long summer camp for grades 3-7. The program will run from 9 AM to 5 PM, and by the end of the camp, the student will be able to construct shelter, create a fire with primitive tools (friction fire), track animals, identify useful wild and edible plants, orienteering, and learn to respect nature. Beyond this, children will obtain a healthy alternative to the risk intensive behaviors of youth, thereby minimizing the risk of resorting to drugs and alcohol.

Our Master Teacher:
 We are privileged to have as our head instructor Matt Hollen.  Since the age of 13, Matt has been practicing wilderness skills, camping, rock climbing and studying nature. Matt is currently a Caretaker for the Tom Brown school of Tracking, Nature and Wilderness Survival, located in Ocean Township. His recent duties provide him the opportunity to live deep in the Pine Barrens, under semi-primitive conditions. He lives in a shelter he constructed himself, and must  gather many of the essentials necessary for his own survival. Previously, he was employed as an instructor in the Tracker's Kids Program, where he instructed children on survival skills and group dynamics. The summer before that, he worked as a counselor and an outdoor education instructor in a camp for inner city youth, many of whom were drug addicts, diagnosed ADD, and from households in crisis. Part of Matt's responsibility there was to build initiative, encourage team work and self esteem and to demonstrate positive role modeling.

Our Goals:
Matt: "While working with youth I have a set of goals that I try to accomplish in whatever area I work. In this case, the seen goals would be centered around wilderness survival skills, tracking, nature study, movement and awareness. These skills range anywhere from friction fires ("rubbing sticks together" to make fires) natural survival shelters, primitive foods, and survival strategy to track identification, awareness of birds and animals and plant identification. I also love to incorporate healthy exercise through natural movement, stretching, animal movements and hiking. These skills alone teach youth to think positively and give them a positive alternative to TV and drugs, allowing them to focus their energy on positive, useful things.

The unseen goals of my program are hard to explain .. these programs teach youth to think for themselves, consider things on a deeper level, and open up a part of them that many people never explore."

The Course:
Matt will set up a primitive camp in the South Toms River Greenbelt, including a shelter.  Registration will be continuous, until June 24. Two sessions, one for 8-12 graders, and another, for 3-7 graders will take place. Registration fee is $35 for the week, for STR residents, $70 for non-residents. The course requires one adult volunteer, possibly two. This is where we will require the services of the Alliance. Under the auspices of your organization, we can ask Green Thumb volunteers to help assist in these courses. We would also offer 5 scholarships for parents of STR kids whose means do not allow their children to participate. We will print flyers for the program, and include them in their newsletters. We would distribute these fliers at the county parks, and drop them in the mailboxes of Beachwood residents whose homes adjoin the camp area. We have noticed vandalism and the destruction of trees, rampant dumping, and this would alleviate that devastation. We also plan on cleaning up the area the week before the courses begin, and hope to enlist the Boy and Girl Scouts in these efforts.
The camp will run from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM from Monday to Friday. Teens will learn the skills mentioned above, and many others. The most able of these teens will be asked to assist in the kids camp the following week. Campers will be expected to bring their own lunch and drinks, but water will be provided.

The goal of this course, is first and foremost, to replace "the need to be entertained" with "the ability to be awed". In developing a love of nature and a respect for life, it is hoped that children come to appreciate their own abilities and place in the world. No one who ever learns primitive survival can ever go homeless, ever starve, ever have to compromise principles in order to survive. Teens get a sense of independence, a sense of self-responsibility- something denied them by a disempowering life, where they are told what to do and where to go. It is a healthy outlet for youthful rebellion, an empowering alternative to gangs and drugs.

Many programs already in place for at-risk youth incorporate a primitive survival aspect, since studies have shown that during the peak years of risk (ages 14-20) those teens most likely to take dangerous chances are also the most likely to fall prey to drugs, especially in the absence of strong family support. As the drug culture gains a foothold through these risk-takers, a secondary group, those most anxious for peer approval, will soon follow suit. In the worst case scenario, the third at-risk group, those who are fearful and would not normally experiment with drugs, may be bullied into taking drugs by the other two groups.

This program works best with the risk takers during their teenage years, and with the followers during their elementary school years. It provides risks, however objectively tame these are. Children will come home wet, dirty, and exhausted. They will have sampled new tastes, fashioned tools, pushed body and spirit to a hardcore level. It is precisely this type of risk taking that make sports an effective combatant to drugs. However, not everyone is talented enough to play a sport. Primitive skills are so wide ranging, and have been part of the human history for so many hundreds of thousands of years, that every child who participates can find a specialized skill that will benefit the "tribe".
 

Benefit to the town:
Before our program begins, we will organize a large-scale cleanup day of the area in question. Volunteers will help pick up and cart out the garbage that has accumulated. The students will be asked to maintain and "caretake" the land throughout the year, so that when the program is ready to run again, the woods will be clean. The primitive camp will remain intact, and people who have taken the program and live in the area will be asked to maintain it, and repair any damage due to vandalism. Lately, dirt bikers from Beachwood have been coming into those woods and chopping down trees. Increased traffic in the area will prohibit further vandalism.
Children will have a healthy alternative to television, and the sedentary life. They will have an increased interest in things of the forest, which may inspire some to take advantage of the new Jake's Branch county park. They will also be less likely to tolerate dumping and polluting, after the week's course.
Participants will also be able to interact with others in the town who share a passion for the woods and for nature, creating a positive peer group based on "hard core survival", not on drugs.
Our students will also learn about tick-proofing, identification and dietary tricks to diminish their palatability to mosquitoes and ticks.

Our Disclaimer:
If you find the quality of this course to be exceptional,
know this:
We have been taught by the best,
and we would be remiss not to acknowledge
Tom Brown, Stalking Wolf, and all the instructors and fellow students at the Tracker School.
Our triumphs belong to our teachers.
Our shortcomings are our own.
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We are in no way affiliated with Tracker School, Inc., nor do the skills and talents evidenced by our instructors represent anything which has not already been mastered by thousands of other students with similar desire, instruction and practice.
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These skills are the birthright of all humankind.
By teaching them we hope to honor our teachers,
enrich our students
and preserve our precious planet.