Catching Up With CAT: All About Wilderness First Responder!
Our Catching Up With CAT is a double whammy today, brought to you by Laura and Soph!
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Would you know what to do if you were four miles from the nearest cell signal and someone was seriously injured? Or how to care for a person having seizures when professional help is more than an hour away?
Thanks to the SOLO Wilderness First Responder certification course that CAT hosted at Big Marsh Park last week, a whole group of Chicagoans now have the skills to manage these kinds of emergencies in the outdoors. This course is designed for anyone in a leadership role in outdoor settings, as well as individuals who want a high level of wilderness medical training for personal trips. Typically, WFR courses aren’t offered in major cities—and they often cost $800 to $1,000—meaning many people who need this training simply can’t access it. CAT wanted to change that.
So we partnered with our friend Todd Wright to bring the first-ever SOLO WFR course to Chicago! Participants included outdoor professionals, CAT volunteers, Chicago Park District staff, partner agency staff and volunteers, members of climbing affinity groups, and former CAT participants aspiring to enter the outdoor field. It was the most inclusive, welcoming, and diverse wilderness medicine course I’ve attended in more than 20 years (in terms of age, race, gender identity, etc.)
Here's what motivated people to take the course:
-Been wanting to take it for a while. As an outdoor enthusiast, volunteer with CAT, organizer with Queers on the Rocks and someone who goes backpacking once per year and often brings friends who’ve never been, I am eager to know more about outdoor safety and how to support in emergency situations.
-I want to deepen my skills and feel more equipped when things go left at my job as an outdoor educator.
-I don't want anyone to die if there is knowledge that I can acquire to help prevent it.
Huge thanks to Todd Johnstone-Wright of Synaptic Sport, The Nature Conservancy/Thrive Outside Chicago Initiative, SOLO Wilderness Medicine, and Big Marsh Park
-Laura
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Hey y'all, Soph here, this is my first time writing a Catching Up With CAT since I joined the team this summer. I'm super excited to be here and to be communicating with you all! Last week we did our intense 7-day Wilderness First Responder training, that I was so happy to be able to be a part of. At the beginning of our course, we discussed how amazing it was to be in an incredibly diverse room full of community members that are often not highly represented in the outdoor adventure sport area. Being able to be in a room of highly driven and diverse peers learning these really important skills was an amazing experience. My biggest take away from this course, other than the training and knowledge it provided us, was a feeling of immense pride and gratitude knowing that some of our least represented communities are now better equipped to keep each other safe. One of the biggest reasons I have been involved with CAT for the past 5 years (first as a volunteer and now as a staff member) is because I truly believe that the work we do to provide inclusion, access, and opportunities to folks that are often left out of this community is so important and can truly be life changing. Being able to create space in outdoor adventure sports for people that represent our communities at large through this WFR course is one really great example of how CAT strives to make changes and affect people's lives, and I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of that effort.
Returning to the office this week, as tired as I was from a long week last week, I felt a renewed sense of passion and pride for the work we do, as well as a new sense of confidence in my skills. This week has been full of meetings and administrative work as we catch up for time spent elsewhere, prepare for our winter break, and plan for what awaits us in the new year. It has been really nice to feel the effects of the bonding we were all able to do last week throughout our WFR course, as it is not often we get to spend 7 days all together, learning and growing as individuals and a team. I have really been able to feel that lightness and joy throughout our team this week and it makes me so happy to be here doing the work that we know is so important and beneficial.
-Soph