Twin Eagles Wilderness School
Update - August 2012
Late summer greetings to you from Twin Eagles Wilderness School! We are grateful for all the interest, support, and love that you have given to Twin Eagles in this past year. Through your connection, our community has grown into the thriving hub for deep nature connection mentoring that it is today.
We just finished a truly amazing summer camp season. Seven camps, 120 campers, 20 staff. Toddlers, kids, and teens. Day and overnight camps. We had tons of amazing moments of deep connection to nature including spying a mallard duck nest complete with 11 eggs that hatched into 11 fuzzy ducklings all nestled together, up close white tailed buck encounters, bull snake encounters, and even a mountain lion sighting! So many stories, we could write a book.
Here is a precious one for you. At one of our Spokane day camps we guided a group of highly passionate kids through the process of making spears in preparation for the Twin Eagles Wilderness Summer Olympics. We had been sitting underneath this beautiful ponderosa pine canopy for about thirty minutes, carving our spears. Suddenly, a young seven year old calls out "HUMMINGBIRD!" With sharp ears he picked up the faint sound of her wings humming and, sure enough, in flies this beautiful female hummingbird. She hovers by a ponderosa pine for a while, and then lands on the knob of a nearby branch.
But the knob isn't a knob, it's her nest! We watch, awestruck, as three tiny needle-like beaks edge out of the nest. Totally engaged by this rare find, time just slipped away and our group just soaked in the moment. Then someone makes the connection. "The long hummingbird beaks! They're just like the spears we're making! Whoa, that is so cool! We're the hummingbird spear throwers!" calls out an awestruck eight year old. And we were. The spirit of that hummingbird was with us all, its presence fused with ours. Each one of our hearts was touched, changed forever.
Here is another story from our overnight camp for 10 - 13 year olds. The boys were all gathered with the male staff in a talking circle, bringing our male gender society time to a close. "What does it mean to be a boy of the wilderness?" we ask the boys. Henry, a 14 year old MIT who's been with us for over five years shares, "Being a boy of the wilderness isn't just about learning to tend fires in the woods, it's about learning to tend your inner fire. It isn't just about learning to walk balanced over the log; it's about learning to walk balanced in your life."
Those are words of wisdom for all of us.
Read these words from Allison Barrows-Young, parent of Tristan, who came to our Overnight Camp for Teens for the first time this year:
"I am happy to report that Tristan had a wonderful time at Twin Eagles Overnight Camp for Teens. I simply cannot thank them enough for giving him such an incredible life-altering experience. He learned to carve a bow, make arrows, track animals like a native scout, imitate bird songs and identify plants. Best of all, in his own words, he learned how to find his warrior 'center', walk lightly and cautiously 'like a fox' and use his 'owl eyes' for seeing all things at once and the connectedness between the natural world and himself.
In days, and nights, he also practiced sitting quietly and communing with nature in his very own 'sit spot' which made him feel happy and comforted, or as he said 'grounded to the earth and connected to the trees and sky'. His week was filled with activities that nurtured body and soul.
Overall Tristan was the recipient of so much support, love and understanding that it was almost mind and heart boggling. After a day of presentations to the families that were filled with stories and memories that honored both the challenging and freewheeling good times undertaken by all, I could not help but cry when I saw him hugging each of the campers and instructors goodbye and seeing how they were giving him, in return, genuine affection. Afterwards on the drive home I said 'Tristan I have never known you to have so many friends!' And he replied, 'they are not my friends they are my other family.'"
It is moments like these that remind us of who we are, and why we do what we do.
The nine months prior to this summer were quieter than normal, as we intentionally took time to pause from our usually busy schedule to make space for re-visioning. We invested in additional business and marketing training, re-vamped our website (check it out at www.TwinEagles.org if you haven't seen it yet!), and prepared to launch some new and redesigned programs.
As we look ahead, we'll be starting our fall programs soon, new and old. This year we'll be continuing all five of our school year programs for youth ages 3 to 18. Additionally, we're launching the Art of Mentoring, a week long, intergenerational, nature based gathering of renewal for the Inland Northwest. Second is our newly redesigned, nine month long, transformational Twin Eagles Wilderness Immersion Program. This is the ultimate training in connection to nature, community, and self.
With all of our programs, we are committed to not only the full expression of our vision of connection to nature, people, and self, but to making our programs accessible. This is where we need your support.
Please make a donation to our scholarship fund today. Our goal is to raise $10,000 as we have already had requests for over $8000 of scholarships for the year ahead. It is essential that we continue to provide programs to everyone, including those who can least afford them. By making a donation you will support both youth and adults to experience the positive transformation of deep nature connection mentoring offered at Twin Eagles Wilderness School. We need your support now more than ever before.
Two easy ways to make a donation to Twin Eagles Wilderness School's Scholarship Fund:
- By snail mail (preferred) - Send a check or money order to:
Twin Eagles Wilderness School
433 Cedar Springs
Sandpoint, ID 83864
- Via PayPal - Click Here to make a secure donation online
Thank you for supporting us to continue to facilitate deep bonding experiences that bring out authentic meaning and connection, what life is all about.
From the Heart,
Tim Corcoran & Jeannine Tidwell
co-Directors & co-Founders
Twin Eagles Wilderness School
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