Wilderness First Aid Certified

If you are having an extreme anaphylactic reaction, you should know that, under the watchful eye of an instructor, I have successfully injected 0.3 ml of epinephrine into an orange, which certifies me to do the same to you. And, thus, save your life.

In the two days before Spring Break, eight Day School adults who will help lead the Jr. Backpacking Trip in late May, spent 16 hours earning our Wilderness First Aid certification.

It turns out that taking 90-plus students into the wilderness for five days is serious business and, all told, will take an additional 20 adults in teams of three and four to provide a strong standard of safety for the students. Thankfully, many of our parent leaders are doctors. Regardless of our current professional status, though, ALL of us will sleep on the ground, pack 50 pounds of gear over 40 miles of challenging terrain and carry a shovel to the latrine.

Fortunately, David Gilbert, our intrepid leader, has been running the program for over 20 years. So, it is fair to assume that this year's rite of passage for the juniors will be as successful as those that have gone before, and no one will get lost or suffer either from anaphylaxis or from the process of me giving the antidote.

How did I get roped into the Jr. Backpacking Trip - noted to be the toughest week in a GDS students' career? Don Lahey recently led a trip to France and, over Spring Break, Blakely Schmidt led at trip to Argentina while Judy Arnette took a group of students on a trip to Greece and Italy. But, they didn't ask me to join them, and I don't believe they had to take a two day first aid course. I am not sure how or why David asked me to join this trip. Perhaps he took me too seriously last fall when I said that I really wanted to spend time getting to know the kids.

Maybe, if I do a good job on the backpacking trip, the other trip leaders will need someone who is WFA certified to administer epinephrine and will ask me to join them next year to visit a foreign country where I can ride in a bus, sleep in a warm hotel room each night and not have to carry a shovel to the bathroom.