Gaisce Presidential Award

   This past week we hosted twelve teenagers who were meeting the requirements to earn the Gaisce Presidential Award. This programme was set up by the President of Ireland to challenge Irish youth to get out and experience the outdoors and their community. It is offered to all Irish youth aged from 15 to 25. It consists of a three tiered award system offering Bronze, Silver and Gold awards.

  Part of the requirement for all three awards is to plan and execute a multi day overnight event into the outdoors. We here at IPNA were approached by Brian, a former student, to allow twelve teenagers to come for three days to the IPNA campus and take some tuition in bushcraft and wilderness survival.

   The programme consisted of three days. The youth learned how to make fire, find shelter, procure water and even how to find wild edible food in the middle of winter here in South Kerry. For one of the days they hiked out into the local forestry and surrounding hills to enjoy the rare spot of sun and dry weather.

   In order to learn about making a fire, the students were challenged to find dry twigs and branches in the thick forestry and make a fist sized fire within a five minute timeframe. The expectation is that if someone falls into cold water they have about five minutes before their hands are too cold to function. They have that amount of time to make a warming fire.

   For the shelter building the students built a debris hut from wood and straw. To test their creation it was slept in with a night spent warm and dry.

   The wild foods are difficult to find in February. We did taste Alder catkins and Spruce tea. Both were nutritious and quite tasty.

   Water procurement is the easiest of all survival skills here in Ireland. We discussed solar stills and mechanical filters, but it was the use of the Kelly Kettle for boiling water that saved the day.

   The students were challenged to walk through the forest while wearing blindfolds. This was to increase their hearing and other sensed that don't get used in an eye dominated society. They progressed quite well until they were given padded arrows and bow to stalk and shoot each other while blindfolded. This was one of the most popular events of the week.

   We were pleased with how receptive and excited the students were with learning the outdoor skills. They cooked their food over the open fire and braved the chilly evenings. They went home a little more tired and happy to have spent some time in the natural world.

More information can be found at www.ipna.ie.