I'm thinking about summer and all the fun I had with my own kids when they were little. We live in a great area for people who love the outdoors. When the kids were little, hardly a week passed between camping trips. We tried to be gone more than we were home during the summer months. I still can't go outside without noticing something and thinking "That would be such a cool thing for a lesson about..." Hmmm. Can't turn off that teacher brain. And I'm not sure I ever want to.
Today, thinking about camping, I thought about a little boy who was lost in the mountains just east of me. He was at a lake with his dad, and just went back to camp for "a minute" because he got his clothes wet and wanted to change. I think he was about 10 years old and their camp was a very short walk away. That was several years ago. He's never been found. Nor has any trace of him. I think about his parents every summer. One minute your kid is by your side having fun at a mountain lake. The next minute he's vanished into thin air. I can't imagine that nightmare. But I've been on the "lost" end of it, very briefly. I was an adult, and it was terrifying to me. I was 'lost' and alone for less than an hour before being found. But I learned a lifelong lesson in that time. I realized how unprepared I was. I never go camping or hiking anymore without carrying on my person what I would need to stay safe for a night - or two.
Here are simple FREE instructions for making your own Survival Kit In A Sandwich Bag. It's made with easily available inexpensive materials and - most importantly - a kid can use it without help.
Survival Kit In A Sandwich Bag
That is so sad about that little boy! Thank you for offering a guide to making a survival kit -- I had never heard about using steel wool and a battery. That will be very useful when I go out hiking!
ReplyDelete-- Susan
His family has been very active in supporting search and rescue work since they lost their son and they actually have been instrumental in locating a couple of other lost kids. So something good came of it, but to me it's just unimaginably sad.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite startling how well the steel wool trick works! I'll take a photo and post it here on the blog in the next couple of days.
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