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Twin Eagles Wilderness School
eNewsletter - August 2017
Late summer is upon us! Blackberries and rose hips are ripe, the landscape is very dry, squirrels are already starting to gather up cones, and everyone seems to be busy getting in one last summer gathering or camping trip before autumn sets in. Here at Twin Eagles, we're celebrating our most successful summer ever and getting ready for all of our school year programs. Take a look!
Here is what we have in store for you in this months eNewsletter:
- School Year Programs 2017-2018 - Registration Now Open!!
- Summer Camps 2017 Review
- Dirt in Your Skirt Podcast with Jeannine Tidwell
Twin Eagles Programs 2017-2018!
Weekly Homeschool Youth Nature Program
Twin Eagles Community School
For kids ages 6 - 13 · Sandpoint, Idaho
One day per week, 9 am - 3 pm
Autumn & Spring Seasonal Blocks
Come join our original weekly program for homeschool youth that explores deep nature connection and the wilderness arts through nature based mentoring. Students truly steep in a timeless experience of the natural world with teachings of the naturalist, the tracker, the wanderer, the herbalist, the ecologist, the survivalist and the scout. Now in its twelfth year, Twin Eagles Community School is a tremendous opportunity for youth to experience knowledge of place and nature awareness all in a powerful atmosphere of cultural mentoring. Click here to learn more about Twin Eagles Community School!
Twin Eagles Monthly Youth Programs
For kids ages 6 - 13 · Spokane, WA
One Sunday per month · October - May
We are pleased to be bringing traditional ecological knowledge to the Spokane community on a monthly basis! Kids have a rare opportunity to slow down to nature's pace and experience themselves in a community of passionate nature based learners through activities such as fire by friction, local species interrelations, songs, animal tracking, group challenges, wild edible & medicinal plants, natural shelter building, storytelling, sensory awareness and much, much more. Click here to learn more about Twin Eagles Monthly Youth Programs!
Weekend Teen Wilderness Programs
Twin Eagles Seasonal Teen Rendezvous
For teens ages 13 - 18 · Locations throughout the Inland Northwest
Weekends run Friday evening through Sunday Afternoon
Autumn, Winter, & Spring Sessions
Twin Eagles Seasonal Teen Rendezvous offers awesome experiences to teens throughout the Inland Northwest and beyond to sink deep roots to the earth through wilderness skills while soaring high through full-on group adventures. Teens learn leadership by working together as well as applying their sensitivities through ancient earth based skills and crafts. This is a powerful opportunity for teens to encounter the wild around them. As well, teens have a chance to touch their own inner wildness by giving unique voice to their inner selves amongst a community of peers and mentors.
Autumn Session: The Way of The Scout
Winter Session: Snow Cave Expedition
Spring Session: TBA
Click here to learn more about Twin Eagles Seasonal Teen Rendezvous!
Teen Mentor-In-Training Program
For teens ages 13 and older · Sandpoint, ID & Spokane, WA
Twin Eagles Mentor in Training (MIT) program is an incredible opportunity for teens to step forward into becoming authentic nature based mentors. Twin Eagles MITs receive guidance from Twin Eagles' seasoned adult staff to move into a mentoring role with Twin Eagles Youth Program students, thereby experiencing themselves as powerful role models and leaders. It is a rare opportunity to be mentored into their greater potential as they experience the joy of mentoring others into a deep relationship with the earth. The MIT Program runs alongside all of our Youth Programs, so teens are able to select which one(s) they wish to participate in. Click here to learn more about Twin Eagles Mentor in Training Program!
Winter Break Camp
For kids ages 6 - 13 · Spokane, WA
Tue Jan 2, Wed Jan 3, & Thu Jan 4 · 9 am - 3 pm
Get your kids outside this winter with Twin Eagles Winter Break Camps! Winter here in the Inland Northwest is a magical time. The landscape is transformed by a blanket of snow, and there is a stillness upon the land. Rather than holing up, get outside this winter! Like all Twin Eagles Youth Programs, our winter break camps bring out the best in kids by connecting them deeply to the natural world, forging strong community, and developing genuine self-awareness. Our highly trained instructors draw out kids' passions through nature based activities like tracking wild animals, building snow shelters, learning primitive skills & crafts, storytelling & songs around a warm campfire, and much more! Click here to learn more about our Winter Break Camps!
Spring Alive! Spring Break Camps
For kids ages 6 - 13 · Spokane, WA
Tue Apr 3, Wed Apr 4, & Thu Apr 5 · 9 am - 3 pm
Spring in the Inland Northwest is an amazing time, full of inspiration. The snow has melted, and the landscape is coming back to life with all kinds of flowers blooming, frogs & salamanders crawling about, and young animals & birds being birthed into the world. Indeed, all of life is being renewed! Twin Eagles Spring Alive! spring break camps are the perfect way to help get your kids outside to enjoy this precious time of year. Like all Twin Eagles Youth Programs, our spring break camps bring out the best in kids by connecting them intimately to the natural world, forging resilient community ties, and developing authentic self-awareness. Click here to learn more about our Spring Alive! Spring Break Camps
Wooden Bow Making Workshop
Cedar Springs, Sandpoint, Idaho · For adults and motivated older teens
Friday February 16 - Sunday February 18, 2018
Make your own wooden long bow at our bow making workshop!! Just imagine shooting bulls eyes with your very own handmade wooden long bow. Experience a deep connection to your indigenous ancestors as you discover this ancient art.
During this bow making workshop, participants will learn the skills to build a longbow, how to choose the wood, the tools needed and their use, how to make bow strings, and how to finish the wood. Shooting the bow will also be covered. By Sunday, your bow will be ready to shoot. You will be taught the instinctive shooting method (the same method used by people who relied on the bow in their daily lives). You will leave with a bow and the understanding to be able to build another bow on your own.
Click here to learn more about our Wooden Bow Making Workshop!
Summer Camps 2017 Review
Twin Eagles Wilderness Adventure Summer Camps were a huge success this year! It is hard to believe that two and half months have gone by so quick, yet filled with so many timeless moments of connection. In the end, we had 280 kids participate in 13 week long summer camps, supported by 238 staff! Wow!!
Nature Adventurers Day Camps were some of my favorite camps of the summer. We ran one of these day camps in both Sandpoint and Spokane each, and they were chock full of beautiful moments of nature connection. Think catching crayfish in the river, climbing trees, spotting hidden nests of quail, plovers, flycatchers, & robins, finding hidden fawns in the tall grasses, playing TONS of fun nature games (that secretly connect the kids even deeper to the land), and making real connections with plants and trees through natural crafts, foods, and medicines, just to name a few. This journey of exploring natural mysteries is in many ways the heart of what we do here at Twin Eagles, as we guide the kids (and ourselves) to experience the truth that we are nature.
Wilderness Survival Day Camps are always our most popular camps. This summer we ran five of these camps, two each in Sandpoint & Spokane, plus one is Coeur d'Alene, which was our first program EVER in CdA! We just have SO MUCH Fun at these camps! I mean, who wouldn't love building warm and dry natural shelters, making fire by friction via rubbing sticks together (yes, it really does work!), harvesting clean drinking water from wild places, digging & eating wild roots, berries, leaves, flowers, & bugs, as well as learning primitive hunting methods like rabbit sticks and simple traps and snares. These camps put us in direct relationship with our basic needs as humans, and are thus incredibly empowering and liberating.
Nature Ninjas Day Camps were a total blast! We ran three of these camps, as kids were covered from head to toe in mud, charcoal, and clay for just about the entire time. We spent lost of time learning the art of natural camouflage, then playing long games of capture the flag as ninjas. We taught the kids responsible and safe stick fighting, and brought out the old teachings that ninjas were actually peacemakers first, protectors of the tribe. Real skills, real fun, real life teachings.
Overnight Camps were, once again, some of our favorite weeks of the entire year. We ran two of them, one for 10-13 year olds and another for teens. Talk about deep connection. When we all come together and actually live together full time for a week or more, something big shifts. We embrace village life, and thus embrace an embodied interconnected way of living. As far as activities, imagine all of the above, plus kids that are more capable, and NIGHTTIME! Campfire stalks, village craft nights making flex bows, cattail baskets, grass mats, rawhide containers, & primitive traps, gratitude circles, crazy fun games, tons on natural mysteries, timeless sit spots, sleeping in primitive shelters, morning runs, lots of animal encounters (we even had a mama cedar waxwing raise her babies in her nest just a few feet from our main lodge!), small groups going out on their own overnight survival challenges, and, for the teens, wilderness survival solos that brought them into profound connection with the land and themselves. We reconnected with what it means to be fully human, and there were many tears when it was over, as it seemed that no one at all wanted to leave.
Our Amazing Staff were the engine behind all of these wildly successful camps! And I really do mean amazing! We had seven teen Mentors-In-Training support our camps this year, including Nathen Peck, Berta Savage, Oscar Angell, Selah Keller, Razi Schmidt, Anthony Loutensock, and Cooper Luce. These teens went above and beyond the call of duty, as they stepped into genuine responsibility as they worked to inspire campers and bring big fun. Twenty-one(!) adult assistant instructors joined us this summer, including Becky Bellis, David Kletter, Brad Schwartz, Lisa Krause, Val Burgess, Krysta Bell, Jessica Steinruek, Vilma McDaniel, Heidi Montez, Bridgit Pies, Kayton Gomez, Erin Decker, Amiste Sanders, Dean Whitney, Ann Freeman, Mark Hayward, Dave "Norseman" Williams, Kathryn Morris, Dane Morris, Jeremy Schlottig, and Heather Ross. These folks brought their big love for nature and people to our camps, providing huge support as they deepened in their capacity to mentor campers. Our lead instructors were the strongbacks of our summer camp culture. Jesse Hoag, Karen Pogorzelski, Petra Murdoch, Calean Angell, & Matt McKinney each gave of themselves tremendously as they led group after group of kids hungry to connect with nature on a true journey of the heart and soul. Our overnight camps were blessed with delicious food prepared by Chris Arigo and Jenn Head. These two served amazing food as they tended the heart of our camp, our kitchen. Lastly, we'd like to honor Joshua Walters again who joined Jeannine and I (Tim) as a camp director this summer. Indeed, leadership is one of the quickest paths to self mastery. We are deeply grateful to all of these wonderful human beings who made our summer camps possible, and hope that you'll join us in this appreciation!
I'll wrap this section up by sharing a message we received from Kayton, who is a young man that came up to volunteer at several of our summer camps from the desert southwest:
"I wasn't aware of what I was getting myself into when I reached out to Twin Eagles. Coming from Las Vegas, NV, I was initially in search of personal growth but what I received instead was a sense of purpose, meaning, direction, and a confidence and depth inside myself I hadn't known before. It wasn't personal growth I received, it was personal transformation. With the mentorship of Jeannine and Tim, I have come to know myself and the world more authentically. The impact I feel I've made on the community as a volunteer staff will never leave me. I not only learned the basics of wilderness survival, but I've learned how to inspire others through full wilderness immersion, how to teach important concepts through storytelling, and how to truly connect with the natural world by experiencing the value and wisdom that it holds at every turn. My experience with Twin Eagles has inspired me to discover how to use what I've learned to make a difference in my own community."
Dirt in Your Skirt Podcast interviews Jeannine Tidwell!
We're excited to announce that Twin Eagles's co-Founder & co-Director Jeannine Tidwell was recently interviewed on the Dirt in Your Skirt Podcast! This podcast has a good sized following, so it was a real honor to be featured. The conversation was a rich exploration of Jeannine's work mentoring women, the divine feminine, the importance of rites of passage and how they are missing for most of our society today and how we can reclaim them.
If you haven't listened yet, be sure to check it out here!
All the best,
Tim Corcoran
co-Director & co-Founder
Twin Eagles Wilderness School
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Header photo courtesy Joseph Rocchio Photography
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