Outdoor Education with Brett Roberts - From the Firehouse to Rock Climbing

Hey there Her BrotHERhood  Listeners! We’re back on a new season with Clubhouse, the latest type of social network based on-voice where people anywhere in the world can start and join conversations. We’d like to grow the Her BrotHerhood  tribe and have more meaningful conversations so if you want to join our exclusive group on Clubhouse, just DM Abby on Instagram at @herbrotherhood.

In this episode, outdoor education is what Brett lives for! She is the program director for the Outdoor Education program at Future School of Fort Smith in Arkansas. The small school is a non-profit, public, charter school. Her program focuses on removing barriers of entry to the outdoors for 10-12th grade students from low income or otherwise unstable backgrounds. A large percentage of her students are BIPOC and/or LGBT+. Most of her students have never set foot in a natural area despite living in the natural state. As you know, one of the largest barriers of entry is cost, so we completely remove that. Our program is completely free for our kids. They get equipment, qualified instruction, and transportation to all of our activities.

Her school has a three-pronged approach to Outdoor Education. They start our program off by zeroing in and developing communication and leadership skills, then blend Outdoor Recreation activities with classroom lessons about public lands, ethics, and natural resources. In the classroom they focus hard on public land management and administration, legislation going on around public lands, Leave No Trace Ethics, and stewardship. They also have a unit on how the Outdoor Industry is a driving force in economics and what kinds of jobs are available in the industry.

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Transcript

Speaker 1:  0:00
You are listening to her brotherhood, where we celebrate and support women who put their lives on the line. Veterans, first responders, frontline workers, you name it, those women that are out there, serving something greater than themselves. My goal is to have every little girl know that they can do that, too. So with that, I hope you really enjoy this podcast, we are breaking in to season two of her brotherhood podcast where the very first one I'm actually doing a little bit of an experiment. If you haven't heard of clubhouse yet, you're going to soon. But it's a new audio, social media super great place where I've made a lot of amazing connections. And we're actually going to record this episode on clubhouse. So there may be, you know, some little technical things you hear there, here and there. But hang with me, it's actually really cool. And with that, enjoy the show. This episode is brought to you by her brotherhood box. It's an amazing subscription box for badass women and really the only one where you can get colored lip balm and a knife in the same box. If you're interested, check out her brotherhood.com sign up for a subscription, you're gonna love it. We're gonna see how this format works. And then like in the future if we do a podcast, and then we take questions from the audience or whatever, I'm just totally shooting from the hip to give it a shot and see if I have the tech know how to make it all work out. So can you hear me okay, Brent? Yeah, I can hear you fine. Cool. I thought it would just be really cool to be on here. And then whoever wants to come in and just listen to our conversation or learn more about you or about what we're doing. And that would give him the opportunity. Because usually we're just completely recording podcasts and like a vacuum and you never, you don't get to experience or get to see it. And so I don't know, what do you think, Brett? Are you comfortable with this? Yeah, I like the idea. Yeah. And then I think too, we'll find out if it's technically able or free. If that cuts out. I know. It's kind of a rough time. As far as the app goes, it gets a little more active in the evening. And that's when my internet gets a little crazy. It seems like everybody starts watching Netflix around four or five in the evening on the in the California time. And you're in Arkansas though, right? Yeah, cool. Well, thanks for doing this. So I'm just going to start it off like with anything other so this is her brother had podcast where we celebrate and support women who put their lives on the line with all kinds of jobs out there on the front line, whether you're former current or future hoping to be and just getting stories out there and lives and finding out who it is that's behind this stuff. And, and not just women about the men to in our careers that support us and our brothers along the way. And there's a reason I call it her brotherhood instead of our sisterhood. Because I mean, a brotherhood is really a group of people working together for a common goal. And I'm not worried about calling it sisterhood because as far as I can see her is right smack in the middle of brotherhood. So so that's why we're doing this and I met Brett on clubhouse, which for those of you who are just tuning into the podcast and don't know what clubhouse is, if you don't know what it is you will because it's getting bigger, and it's a really cool social outlet that I met Brett on I never would have known her otherwise. And Brett is in Arkansas. So Brad, just introduce yourself. Tell me a little bit about you.

Speaker 2:  3:14
Yeah, so second clubhouse being a cool space that we would never would have met. I'm really starting to like it more so than like, traditional social media acts. I like having the vocal vocal conversations. But so me. So I am a wilderness paramedic. I'm also a firefighter one and two. But that's all in the past. I now currently run a high school outdoor education program where I take at rescues out into the outsides and do a lot of fun stuff climbing, hiking, camping, backpacking, all kinds of fun stuff. I do still want a company that teaches wilderness medicine though. And I teach anything from hands only CPR all the way up to W EMP.

Speaker 1:  4:00
That is so cool. And before we slip into how you got into this amazing job that seemed to be completely an answered prayer, take us back to your former time, like what even drove you to become an EMT or to get into any of that first responder kind of work like what what drove you there?

Speaker 2:  4:18
My mom, my mom's been a paramedic since I was a child. She's now she moved over to Rn, but she was a flight medic. And then she also was being of a paramedic program at a college for a while and she has a master's in emergency management. And so I just looking after her really did it. But I think what really started me into it was search and rescue. My mom was one of the first Nasar certified canine handlers in the nation when they first launched their canine handler program. So moreso than just having a dog that was trained, we're actually having a handler certification. And so of course, I was like, I want to do that. I was 11. And it turns out that you can't be a search and rescue officer at 11. But you can be a search rescue officer out there. Game county would pay for my insurance if I was a teenager, really? So to Yeah, so to appease me, because I was going to, I would not get to take no for an answer, because at 11 I didn't understand insurance. But my mom told me that I couldn't take the search and rescue test until I learned how to tie all of the climbing knots in the handbook, which was totally untrue and unfounded. But it did keep me occupied for two years. It sounds like sounds like crap, I call on my kids. Yeah. Yeah, so that also really got me started in climbing to and learning all the knots. But there's a great picture of me, I wish I knew where it was. I think my mom has it in a scrapbook somewhere. But I was taking the nurse architect to test and I was 13. And they had gotten me the smallest search and rescue team shirt they could find, which was like a min medium. And it's just like swallowing me as I'm trying to shoot a conference. And it's really funny.

Speaker 1:  5:52
I never would have even known that part about you. I didn't know that's how you got started. I didn't know about your mom, I would. Would your mom be into being on a podcast? She might. Cool. I love that. I would love that to know. I mean, just that that's who inspired you and then what her history is, that's just that's super cool. You know, 13? Gosh, I don't even know if we can do that in California. But yeah, so getting along in that and having your mom be your inspiration. And what was it like being a kid knowing that your mom was flying around in a helicopter, dealing with that kind of stuff?

Speaker 2:  6:22
I thought it was cool. You know, I got to spend. She taught a lot too I think which is also where my love for the education side of emergency services comes from just like watching her teach, I think a lot of inspiration from that. But I got to do all the cool stuff. So when she was teaching or you know, when they would do touch a truck event at school. And then so my mom is wicked. She's now an RN, but she was a medic and has been a medic for years. And in my stepdad was the chief deputy. So I got to see all the fun trucks with the lights and the sirens and push buttons. And
that is so great, right?
I got to do all the cool stuff.

Speaker 1:  7:01
That's cool. Like no matter what I do in my jobs as I progress and stuff my kid just keeps checking back in. He's like, yeah, Mom, but you're still a firefighter. Right? Right. Like he doesn't care what else I do. I just like but you know, you still do that. Right? And like, well, kid, it's more fighting fire with a laptop. But yeah, sure.

Speaker 2:  7:16 
Sure, you can still call me firefighters. Right? I'll die. Yeah. So they're super cool for my mom and my setup for what they did. And then that just stuck with me. And I did push me through to EMP schools and then onto wilderness EMT school, and then on into paramedic school, and I went to the Fire Academy as well.

Speaker 1:  7:40
That's great. Now went so you're in Arkansas, but where are you at in Arkansas, I've learned more about the state just talking in a little brief time that I have with you than I ever knew.

Speaker 2:  7:49
Yeah, so I am in Fort Smith, Arkansas, which is if you think about a map of Arkansas, and on the non Mississippi river side, so the west side of the state, about a quarter of the way down literally touching the Oklahoma border. I can see Oklahoma for my school. I'm right there. We're actually the second largest city in Arkansas. But we have a really small population density because it's a really sprawling area.

Speaker 1:  8:16
Nice. And so you as you're growing up so 13 they're like yeah, yeah, kid will start insuring you now. But take me through that. So you're 13 and then winded beside your mom appeasing you with all your training. When did you actually get officially get to get some certifications when he was at?

Speaker 2:  8:32
Yeah, I actually did get the I actually helped me the youngest certified search and rescue officer in the nation for a really long time because I was certified in 13 as a circuit to a kid recently beat me after like, holding that record for 10 or 11 years. Wow. I don't know exactly what could be even I do know that my record was beat. But I didn't find that kid. That's all. You guys don't know who it was. But I held the youngest certified security officer title for a really long time. Because I was certified at 13 which was a blessing and a curse. Like I really like doing the search stuff. And like being a team lead to doing all that stuff. But it's also really hard to lead a group of adults and in particular in Arkansas a lot of the more I'm trying to give a nice way to a lot of the rescue Randy's a lot of the rescue Randy's I call them Red Hawks. Yep, yep. Those, it's real hard to lead a group of them when you're a 13 year old girl and they're all you know, in their mid to late 20s. Super stoked on being a rescuer.

Speaker 1:  9:38
So lucky. Right? No, absolutely not. So looking back at that and like thinking about your mindset at 13 and dealing with some pretty adult situations like, you know, looking back that now what you do now because when I I was right. I was a raft guide on the kern river and 15 and I look back now at 15 year olds there No way in hell I would get in a raft in any kind of a rapid with a 15 year old, you know. So it's funny how we change our mindset as we get older and mature. But looking back at that, like, what would you have thought right now if a 13 year old in the search and rescue came and said Follow me.

Speaker 2:  10:15
Right, it would depend on how well trained that 13 year old was. I mean, like I was, Lana has always been my specialty with search rescue, and like I was in still in great Atlanta. And I think what it comes down to is like, the ability to like, talk to people really, I'd be a little skeptical at first because I teach high schoolers, so I'm used to the high school brain. But I think once you have, if you have a team where you no matter who they are, what age they are anything, they can tell you what you're doing and explain it to me as a team leader, like I'm expecting a crew chief or something to tell me that I'd be fine following them. Yeah, I think because I've been there. I know what it's like.

Speaker 1:  10:53
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I know, I pulled some people into boats that were that I had to rescue in the river that I, I don't know how I did it at 15. And I just don't know if I would get my if I would get in boat in some of the rivers that I did at that age. Looking back.

Speaker 2:  11:08
I don't know if I put any of my kids from high school into a position like that, where they're leading a search team mistake looking for, you know, a missing person.

Speaker 1:  11:17
Yeah, with a special person. But you're I mean, you had parents that knew what you were capable of, and what you could probably be leaned on for. So I think that has a lot more to say, than just some kid going like, hey, I want to do this, I think I can you know, your parents weren't gonna let you fail.

Speaker 2:  11:32
Yeah, and luckily, I had a really supportive search team. So like, the overall. So I worked for a county search and rescue team. And the overall search team leader, like really trusted my abilities, because he was I went through my startech classes with him. And so he knew what I could do. And he knew, you know, how well trained I was. And he might have actually been harder on me because I was a kid, and he wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to get, you know, get stuff given to me, just because I was young. So okay, but there was there's a couple of searches I know of that. He had to like, pull people off and be like, no, you're gonna listen to my team. I don't care who it is. Because they just didn't want to listen to me, or they didn't want to go out in the field with me because of that. That's a mindset that you and I probably have now that, you know, that's a 13 year old.

Speaker 1:  12:17
Well, I mean, we deal with that same thing with being females in leadership roles. I mean, you dealing with your kid is it's really representative is something things that we that anybody can deal with in these fields. And folks might second guess you or doubt you, but it takes a strong leader to back you up and say like, No, you are going to get back into her and you are going to follow her because she deserves to be there. So that was a really great lesson, not only for you, but for those folks that he kicked in the rear. So that's great.

Speaker 2:  12:44
For sure. And like I said I he was a great, I think he's retired now. But he was a great search team leader. Just super interesting as his team and knew that we were in trying to do pretty well. 

Speaker 1:  12:55
So that's great to hear. So that brought you up through in high school and then like growing up and moving into some other stuff. You got your EMT certifications. And then I know before you were a formal teacher of your outdoor stuff, you were working for a local department. Is that right?

Speaker 2:  13:12
Yeah, I was a captain or a training officer. Yeah. So tell me about that. So I spent a lot of time in Colorado and Wyoming. I went to the national Outdoor Leadership School or no, no knows very well. Yes. Yeah. So I'm an old grad for multiple occasions. I went to their to their wilderness medicine rescue summit. Let me let me graduate.

Speaker 1:  13:35
Before we move forward, though. I want to I want to talk about the Knowles piece a little bit before we skip forward. That's really cool. I didn't know you did that. Yeah. Tell me about some of your goals journeys, what what did you do for them.

Speaker 2:  13:46
So I went through the wilderness medicine and rescue semester, and came out of that with my w EMP. And then some technical route skills that I didn't already that I didn't have some whitewater skills. I've been kayaking and climbing for a while, but I wanted to hone, I really do love the rescue side of it. Like I love the teaching side as well. But I love the rescue side of it. In the outdoor sport in pursuit. It's just something that's been with me since I was a kid, obviously. So I went through and did wilderness medicine or rescue for a semester, which was great. I spent time in the Rockies doing learning all of those skills and web up. And it was really interesting for me as somebody that ended up working in an urban environment too, as well as the web. There's a lot of times because I spent the time doing web empty, and not doing just an EMP with a W upgrade. Right? I had a lot of times a hard time turning off the wilderness brain sometimes when I was in the back of a truck, you know, because in the wilderness, a lot of times we're making decisions and doing long term patient care, where we don't, you know, have somebody that we can call in and get online or offline medical direction for

Speaker 1:  14:59
Yeah. Really outside the box strategies that some may not be used to Yeah. And so

Speaker 2:  15:03
yeah, so working in an urban environment after that was rough, just because turning that, you know, that brain off and being like, No, I have a hospital 10 minutes away, we can just go there. I know, I don't need to do this right now I can just get them to that hospital. But then I ended up going through instructor training. And so I teach wilderness medicine as well now. And then this summer. I'm leaving in July. I'm going back to Knowles for a third time to do the outdoor educator course as part of my master's equivalency

Speaker 1:  15:36
program. Wow, that is really neat. Now, where are they hosting that app?

Speaker 2:  15:41 
So it's all it's out of their lander base in Wyoming. So it'll be in the Wind River range for 23 days.

Speaker 1:  15:48 
Gotcha. Yeah, we've got a good friend. That is one of their instructors, I believe. So it's a Randy letting me a note. Yeah. Because we're definitely going to tell you who to record shall write. Yeah, Rick Rochelle, you'll probably meet him. I'm sure he's super great guy. And then he does a lot of stuff for Knowles. And then for all American leadership here in California, and we've got some history with him. Yeah. So I know one of Randy's experiences. He got dragged through the snow for the week, while he had the foil on a nose expedition. So yeah, he's seen that whole side of it, for sure. But yeah, we use them in wildland fire for a lot of leadership courses. So they do some really cool. Yeah, that's really neat. Great. Okay. Yep. Great. So you came through there, Greg? Yeah, no, it's great. Why don't people don't know what that is? That's cool. So you came through there, and then you were working for that department. And you so I kind of cut you off at the nosepiece. But tell me a little bit more about the department.

Speaker 2:  16:37 
So I was working as a captain for a rule volunteer department. So we were an unpaid department. But I was also working on the ambulance to make money. So the county ambulance and then I was on the rule department as well, which is pretty common in this area, a lot of our fire departments or volley fire departments. Yes. So here are the areas

Speaker 1:  16:58
for those that don't know lobulated. Yeah, for those that don't know about volunteer departments, because for example, California, most of them are paid. And, you know, when I went lived and worked in South Dakota, most of them were volunteering, but just kind of describe that a little bit thinking about a listener who's never doesn't know the difference, you know, and really understand that what it means to be a volunteer firefighter in the work and sacrifice, it's really given out of the goodness of your heart.

Speaker 2:  17:22 
Yeah, so I carried a pager, I was rocking a lovely 1993, Motorola pager. With me pretty much all time, I kept mine on my radio strap. But basically, if something happens in the area that I'm in, I'm going to get paged, I'm going to go to that, I'm going to run down to the station, and jump in my turnouts, my fire truck with other members of my department, and then we're gonna go fight that fire. And we don't have any big pay departments coming to help us. We were a fire department have about 13 people. And we had an engine and tender and to brush trucks. And then if we needed water, we only had six hydrants in our district. So most of the time, if we need water, it's going to be coming in the form of the surrounding volunteer fire departments with mutual aid, they're going to drop their stuff, and they're going to bring their paper drunk, and we're going to set up a water shuttle. And nobody's getting paid to this. We're just, you know, going to help our community, because there's nobody else there,

Speaker 1:  18:24
we don't go, it's definitely a service taken for granted. Because there are a lot of folks that just they know, they call 911, someone's gonna come rolling up. And it's just not the case and a lot of places.

Speaker 2:  18:36
It's not. So I was the primary medical responder for that department as well. And I was the only EMT, within my department, or three surrounding departments. Everybody else was just an emergency medical responder. Which if you don't know the difference there, it has to do with scope of practice and what you can do and things like that. So for me, a lot of responsibility was input on me to be doing the a lot of the medical response for cardiac patients or anything like that, because the other providers didn't have the skill set to do that. That'd be a lot of pressure. A little bit. Yeah. But I had, I knew that I had an ambulance coming. It only took about 35 minutes for them to get there. 35 minutes. Only about 35 minutes for them to get there. All right now people are bidding on where it was.

Speaker 1:  19:37
Yeah, if I took 35 minutes for most places in the world right now it would be they'd be knocking on their congressman's door asking what can so but a lot of folks don't realize that especially as you travel across the country, and you go through these really long stretches and you know, you think about if I were to get in a car accident here who's gonna come and help me and it's pretty grim. You know, and especially while those places are looking to people like your mom when she was a flight medic back in the day, that's who's coming to help me out. So that thank you for service for all that time, Bret, when you were a volunteer, because that's certainly something you didn't have to do you did it? Because Well, I mean, people will say that like, oh, thank you so much for what you do. And we know that it just feels good in our hearts to do it. And it was something I'm sure that you felt really fulfilled with.

Speaker 2:  20:16
Yeah, I mean, I lived in the community. So if anything happened to me, or you know, my dad who was in that community, then that's who's going to come. And I was a training officer. So it was people that I trained to, that are going to go put that fire out or help my dad if he were to get hurt in the shop or anything like that. So not only was it, I enjoy doing that, but it was also kind of a responsibility in my community to use the skills that I have to help them out.

Speaker 1:  20:42
That's awesome. Now tell me about your transition from there into where you are now.

Speaker 2:  20:49
So that's an interesting one. If my kids were listening to this club careers for a minute, but I was actually in a pub downtown is a problem that I frequented, it's now closed, and it was bought by another Brewing Company. But I was hanging out in the pub, like normal one day afterwards, just having a beer or whatever. And I knew, you know, all the bartenders and all the regulars and everybody there, it was just, you know, your, your regular local, I won't say dive bar, but there was a pub. And I was sitting there and, you know, minding my own business sitting at the bar, and there was one of the other regulars was sitting there. And I knew her from the pub, I didn't really know where from anything else that is newer from the pub. And she was sitting there and she was talking about this new school that opened and how they were wanting to have a hiking club. And, you know, that kind of piqued my interest. And I'm kind of half heartedly listening to this conversation. And also, you know, doing whatever it is that I was doing there. I don't actually remember at this point. And she was like, Yeah, I want to have a titan club, but we don't really have anybody qualified. And I don't know how to do it. But I think it's important that we have something like that. And the bartender because a good friend of mine goes, Yeah, that's what Brett does, right? And so we started talking, and she was like, well, man, yeah, you should just come come check it out and see what you can do. And in my head, I'm going, Okay, yeah, like, I'm going to take his hiking once a month, cool. I can do that. And it very quickly turned into not that, and I didn't actually have time to do that. Because, you know, I was, I was working on an ambulance, I was on the volunteer department. I just don't have an eye on the company. So I'm like, man, I don't have time for this. There's not enough time in my schedule. So after a couple of months of trying to make it work, and just, you know, running myself into the ground, I finally went to the school. And I was like, Look, I really love what you're doing. I want to have this. This has happened. And you know, I'm just talking to person, like, I can't do this. I don't have time. And they were like, well, you have a degree, right? Yeah, I have two degrees. And they're like, Oh, well, why don't we make you a teacher? And I was like, I don't think that's how that works. In a charter school. That's exactly how that works. Wow. As long as you have a degree and you're teaching, your subject matter has to do with your degree, you're fine. tarsal can do that on a conditional basis, as long as you're under the books of another certified teacher. That is so yeah, so they made me a teacher. And then I was like, Well, now what am I supposed to do? How did this happen? Yeah, so they handed me a blank slate, basically. And they said, build us an outdoor education program. And Originally, it was a single class. And I call one 800 best friend, because my best friend, Andy also has a degree in outdoor education. And so I called one 800 best friend and said, Hey, you want to be a high school teacher? He said, I don't think I can get a high school. Turns out, they just hand them out. It turns out, you can't. It turns out you can. So he was like, What would I be a high school teacher for and I was like, outdoor education, you can do that. And he made me promise. So his, his fiance at the time, his daughter was about to be old enough. And it was right when the Boy Scouts have now become scouting USA and started allowing girls into their troops. And his, his daughter was just at the age that she'd be able to be a troop and it's in there as a lion cub for tiger cub at the time. And he goes, Okay, well, if I help you do this, you have to help me run Riley's Tiger den. And I said, Okay, that's fine. I can be hiking. And I can do that. Yeah, well in right, his his. his fiance daughter and I are super close. And so I was like, yeah, sure, I can help you. Right? That's fine. And so that's how that happened. And now it's just kind of snowballed. And now I'm a Program Director.

Speaker 1:  24:46
He's so great. You don't really know what I'm doing. But you stumbled into something that you couldn't have even applied for like you wouldn't even know and and I truly believe that, Brad that you did a lot of good things in your life and you gave your time and you gave that service and then you know Life served you at something you deserve. So I think that's cool. And it's so neat. I love seeing teachers that are in positions to help the kids not you know, there's so many that go to school for it, but they don't have that passion, or that true life knowledge. And you're helping those kids from a place your heart and something that you're passionate about, not because you went to school to, you know, go be a teacher, you, you stumbled into it, because it's what you believe in. So I think that's just, that's great.

Speaker 2:  25:27
Yeah, Andy made us matching shirts that say I'm a teacher and teachers and quote, we like to call ourselves but not real.

Speaker 1:  25:36
That's really cool. And tell me tell me about that, though. Like, so now you're an outdoor educator. Like, what does that look like? Like you? So did you have to create all the curriculum for that? And like, what does that job look like now for you? besides just the like, yeah, you get kids hiking? Like what have been your challenges? Yeah.

Speaker 2:  25:53 
So I didn't build the curriculum. I started that curriculum from scratch. It's something like I said, they handed me a blank slate. And so Andy, and I spent a lot of late nights leading up to that first year of school over the summer, because we knew the program was really starting. So the school that I teach at called future school, it's only been around for a year. with you. Yeah, I believe this is the fourth year on my main roster. My benefit your appraiser support, though? Yeah, we just graduated our first year classes. Yeah, this is the fourth year the school. And we tend to live in the fourth graders. We're it's called a big picture learning school. So our very closest thing I can equate it to, that most people don't understand is Montessori education. But for high school students. Yeah. So it's really hands on. It's really real world based. All of our students have internships that they go to on Wednesdays. And these are real world internships where they're working in the local community. Of course, this year, we've kind of had to shift a little bit with with COVID. And a lot of them are doing virtual internships. Or they're doing what they're called passion projects, where these kids will come up with something that interests them. Like, for instance, one of my students wants to be a tattoo artist. Well, she's 16. So she can't be in a tattoo shop, obviously. So what she's doing for her project is she's studying all the different styles of tattooing. And she's creating a both paper and digital portfolio of sketches of hers and illustrations, that when she is old enough to go to a shop, she can then take it and say, hey, I've already got this portfolio. I'd love to apprentice here, that she's building that stuff for her future.

Speaker 1:  27:41 
And did you think about as you're becoming an outdoor educator, and then poof, you're a high school teacher that then you would be guiding a tattoo artist

Speaker 2:  27:49 
now, and if you'd asked me if he told me in high school that I was ever going to be a high school teacher, I would have laughed at you. And I'm like, Yeah, right. I hate school. Because I was I was definitely the kid that did not like school. I was good at it. But I didn't like it. That's awesome. So yeah, so and then. So every core teacher, which of which we have is 17. I think that's right. All of us are also advisors. And you can think of an advisory as kind of a homeroom on steroids. So a lot of these kids come from unstable backgrounds, either low income, traumatic behavioral issues, things like that, in their in our school. And so we become as an advisor, I have the same group of advisees. From the time they started feature school until the time they leave your school, whether that be because they walked across the stage, and I handed them a diploma, or because they chose not to come to school anymore. Wow. And if they chose not to come to school anymore, I'm gonna hunt them down or drag them to school anyway. But so I have the same I have the same kid for four years. Okay, so I really get to know these kids. And I'm really like, a lot of these kids. I'm their person like one of them. I'm paying for her cleaning membership. Wow, she can come and burn off steam so she's not getting into trouble doing other things. Yeah, come to court with me.

Speaker 1:  29:10 
I mean, the fact that you have that outdoor outlet for them I mean, that's that's beyond what so many educators can even offer nowadays, you know, especially like you said, they only get a very small touch with them, maybe a year maybe a semester and the fact that you're getting this opportunity when they're so valuable, you know, right before their adult years is just that's just so great. And you know, to kind of reset the room here. So as we say on clubhouse we're recording this podcast live on clubhouse if you haven't heard of clubhouse yet, it's the next cool thing. So everybody's gonna want to be doing it soon. But we thought we'd give this very first chance at trying to record her brotherhood podcast on clubhouse which there's several people in the room here that are also first responders and firefighters and they're in here listening to kind of this experience. And I think in the future we'll we'll take questions and I don't know do all kinds of things. We just wanted to give it this first kickoff. And Brad, I appreciate you Being kind of our first guinea pig and I've met Brittany here on clubhouse. She's in Arkansas of all places. I never I don't even have any Arkansas friends. I don't think so I'm so glad I got to meet you. And she has an amazing story about how she started off on search and rescue at 13. They let her be official. And she was the youngest one in the nation for a long time, she recently got beat out which I actually want to track down that kid and find out who that is. And I want your record back man, like a good idea that, but such an amazing story. And then coming up through volunteer department and an ambulance. And then literally in a pub stumbled on your dream job as an outdoor educator. And I think that's just so cool. And I wanted you now to share with us your climbing passion. Because when you were sharing with me some of your climbing experiences and telling me about Arkansas is just one of the most beautiful places and I actually did some research on that and learn more. You know, there's more to Arkansas than, you know, just the Ozarks and Walmart. There's sounds like there's some really great places.

Speaker 2:  30:58 
Yeah, so my number one main outdoor outlet is definitely Corning. I've been climbing since I was a kid. The first I think the first time I required was right. When I was beginning my sister rescue career, we were volunteering on standby the team was for an adventure triathlon, I believe, and one of the events was climbing. And we were Manning that outpost for climbing and you know, just making sure the competitors had water and all the stuff and so that we could deploy as needed. And there was kind of a role and activity at the event and the guys, the guys that were running the climbing event, were like, hey, well, do you want to try this? And I did, and it stuck. And I've been climbing ever since. But, yeah, I've been through climbing instructor training through the APA, which is the American mountain guides Association. So I'm actually certified to teach climbing and things like that. And then my company rNh outdoors. Not only do I teach wilderness medicine, and lifeguarding and CPR, but I offer guided climbing trips with myself and funnily enough, my best friend that also teaches high school with me. And we guide climbing troops and all of the proceeds goes to our outdoor education program to fund that because our school is a nonprofit, so we have a very small budget and in outdoor sports if you've done any outdoor sports you know that they don't like small budgets, right they're very expensive. Yeah.

Speaker 1:  32:31 
That is so cool. Now what are something that anybody's gonna recreate in Arkansas where what do they where do they need to go?

Speaker 2:  32:38
the Ozark Mountains in the Boston mountain range and North Central Arkansas. Oh, my arm nice. Yes, the buffalo National River is in Arkansas. It's the first it was actually the first protected National River March 1 in 1972. And that region of Arkansas where the buffalo is has any outdoor sport imaginable. Fan no sports though recently that's what I was just gonna say nine degree temperatures. That's when we had negative nine degree temperatures. We actually got to ice climate Arkansas. So you know, possible

Speaker 1:  33:17 
that's why I started stumbling because I just remembered that memory of you told me that like last week, you're like, No kidding. We went ice climbing and I was like what?

Speaker 2:  33:23 
Yep, never thought I want to get my ice axes out from Arkansas. But you know, it was the first time for everything I guess.

Speaker 2:  33:36
There's not. We were pretty sick. But yeah, so the buffalo region has obviously paddling you can float the entirety to Buffalo. It's a wild and scenic river. So there's no obstruction on the river at all. So you can float from end to end at 265 miles. It's absolutely beautiful. There's, you know, sweeping sandstone blocks. There's rolling hills, there's rapids, there's move sections, gravel bars to camp on the rivers gorgeous. I have it tattooed on my left arm. Just a map of it with all the kayak takeouts marked. You can climb we have one of the largest outdoor climbing areas in the Midwest at horseshoe Canyon Ranch, which is about three miles from the buffalo River. It's a working dude ranch. So you can also do all the horseback riding and that kind of stuff that you want to do. But their climbing is superb well over 500 bolted routes all within very close proximity to each other. Like I'm talking a two minute walk. They also recently opened the buffalo headwater mountain bike trails, so there's all kinds of single track mountain biking. I am not a mountain biker, so I can't talk a lot about that. I just recently got into gravel biking. That was a pandemic hobby.

Speaker 1:  34:51 
Wait a minute. What's the difference between mountain biking and gravel by game?

Speaker 2:  34:51 
See, I didn't know either. But gravel biking is where you load your bike up. You write it down gravel, roads and paths and go camping. Mountain Biking is the scary stuff on really tiny trails that I don't know how to do.

Speaker 1:  35:08 
Oh, so when I do that a half assed biking on like, forest roads and stuff, I'm not really a mountain biker. I'm a gravel biker. Apparently. That makes more sense. Now I know. I know. So.

Speaker 2:  35:22
Yeah, I just know the difference because I am terrified of mountain biking. I've seen way too many mountain biking accidents, in my time to want to do that. But gravel biking, on the other hand, it's like a, it's like camp. It's like backpacking, just on a bike. Bike packing is very fun.

Speaker 1:  35:39 
That makes sense. Well, we just this last summer discovered by renting for our first time we hit the ball and rented some electric or E mountain bikes and who Yeah, it's hard to go back after he's one of those of them. Yeah, so grout. I am like, I'm like you. I'm a gravel biker. I don't think I'm a legit mountain biker. Yeah.

Speaker 2:  35:57
I like the gravel biking, I'm afraid of the mountain biking. And then there's also all kinds of hiking in the area. There's some long distance trails, there's day hike, there's anything that you want hiking is in the area. Like if you come to Arkansas, definitely hit up that area to show you around, and I'm

Speaker 1:  36:17
going to have Brad's contact info in the show notes. So if you guys want to reach out to her about anything from what she did for her first responder staff to her Knowles training to being an outdoor educator and recreating out the sounds like you could you teach, or you do teach climbing and all that. So I'll have that in there. So you guys can reach out to her because that is just so cool. I'm so glad that I've gotten to meet you. And I, gosh, I could pick your brain literally for hours. That's the hard part about doing these interviews is like as you talk, I'm like, Oh, I want to ask her about this. And that. And I mean, hell, now I even want to interview your mom. So there's just so much to it and learn more and more. So I could see us doing more in the future. And I love getting to know you here on clubhouse and you know, yeah, I mean, was there anything else that, you know, being an outdoor educator? Like, what do you want our youth right now to know or to? Like, what are you trying to share and inspire? Because I know I mean, I've got a kid we live, like I said off grid in the mountains. And it's hard to even to get them to appreciate where they're at and to get them outdoors and doing things off their screens. But like, how are you tackling that? What do you try to pass on to our youth.

Speaker 2:  37:22
So in the classroom section of it is just being good stewards of our public lands are the entirety of our first semester in our program is learning public land management, who the big players are. So BLM Forest Service, National Park Service, gamefish, and Bureau of Reclamation, learn what their management styles are, and how to how to be a good steward on this land. But more so than that, is learning to take risks. and embrace those risks. Because that's how you're going to grow as a person, we spend a lot of time pushing kids safely out of their comfort zone, and making their comfort zones expand. Because they are taking risk, and they're conquering that risk. And they're becoming better people because of that I talk about risk all day.

Speaker 1:  38:13 
Like, damn, there's like three or four different social media posts right there. Because I love that pushing our kids out of their comfort zone, getting them to take risk that that is something that a lot of us don't think about when we think about well, what is what does that mean, you know, risk, well might be terrified of getting up on that rock or, you know, riding that bike somewhere doing just so many different things. And, you know, it's hard, we talk a lot recently, and there's the whole term helicopter parenting, but then we also learn recently that term bulldozer parenting, and it's hard not to plow down all of the things in front of your kids to keep them safe. And, and you know, keep them from those experiences. And but they got to get out there and get hurt and do some things that are a little bit risky to find that find that comfort and realize that taking some risks can actually help them grow. It's just about trying to get them to take the right risks, right. So that can be the hard part.

Speaker 2:  39:03
Yeah, there's there's a term that I use a lot in my program, especially when I'm talking to administration or to parents that are concerned. And it's the term perceived risk. So if you think about your life in your comfort zone as a target, that middle center, Bullseye is your comfort zone, right. And you're not going to learn anything in there, you're comfortable, you already know everything in that comfort zone. Your next outer room is what I call the learning zone. And I didn't come up with this, I stole it from somebody else. But that's called the learning zone. And that's where you're outside of your comfort zone with perceived risks, which are completely safe. Well, not completely, there's inherent risk and everything, but you're safe. You know, you're in a controlled situation, you may be with the climbing guide, and you may be rappelling off of a cliff with me. But you're being blade even though you don't realize that but that's your learning zone. That's where you're going to do the best learning that's where you're going to grow the most. And then the farthest outbreak is called the danger zone. And that's where you push somebody too far past their comfort zone and they're not going to learn anything there. We're going to shut down. So we really focus in on keeping kids in that center ring. But then also, as you stay in that center ring that makes that Bullseye, that center ring expands because you're getting more comfortable. And then you can continue expanding those out by taking more risk. And really, really hard to hammer that into our kids that we want them to take those risks and to make those decisions and to grow from them.

Speaker 1:  40:23 
That's perfect. And I think that's some place where we need to remind adults to be and go to at the same time, because I think we forget that pretty easy. We get pretty comfortable in our lives. And yeah, I've I'm digging that everything that you're saying.

Speaker 2:  40:36 
Yeah, I can talk about it all day. It's one of my favorite topics that when I'm when I'm talking to groups, about my program, and then they asked me those questions like, What do you mean, you take kids rock climbing, from like, well, there's a reason

Speaker 1:  40:50
and a method. Like we do a method we have. We have procedures that we take, yeah, we don't just let them go climbing or anything.

Speaker 2:  40:59
And they look like a goofball. And I'm out there with my kids, but they're actually completely safe. That's so great. as safe as possible. Like I said, there's inherent risk in anything. I don't ever want to say they're completely safe, because something could happen. But we're also prepared for that. If it

Speaker 1:  41:13
does. Well, I'm pretty sure the most dangerous thing we do nowadays is just drive down the highway. So there's, it's getting those kids out. I mean, my sister, she rarely lets her girls come and stay with me at the ranch because she knows that I just throw them out there to do a lot of random things when usually horseback or you know, we go running around and do all kinds of stuff. And she's just always such a nervous Nellie and I'm like, they'll be fine. They get all scraped up, they'll be fine. But if we don't, I mean we're building right now. zip lines. We just finished well are finishing the second zip line and yeah, they're my dad's name's red bolt and they're definitely red bolt style zip lines that we're using Randy scouten is the test me most of time so but they are there. Yeah, my my sister's nervously put it that way. We're there. They're made to have fun on there. They're not ones that we're gonna let the public come to us anytime soon. For liability purposes. We'll put it that way.

Speaker 2:  42:03
Yeah, I got out fine. Andy and I are usually the test dummies on our own stuff. So when we build something, like we build low ropes obstacles a lot we build Tyrolean traverses or different just different low ropes elements that we do with our kids. And, and and I build those nests of time. And we're usually the test dummies. And we'll jump around on it and be like, well, it helped us. So it'll definitely help the kids will be good.

Speaker 1:  42:24 
No kidding. Well, it has been a pleasure talking with you. And I'm so glad that we got a chance to do this. I've learned so much more about you tonight. And thanks for going down this clubhouse experience with me and figuring out if this all works, and Thanks you guys for being in the audience and listening. And I hope that the audio quality turned out great. And with this, this kind of going to be a test experience. And then I don't know I really like it because I like the idea that Tara and Robert and Craig and Joe and Shane are all in here hanging out. And and I just think it's really cool to be able to kind of have a live recording and have other people hear it here in and then if there's stuff on here that we talked about, it's like, oh, maybe we shouldn't keep that on the podcast. So we can always cut that out, you know, in post, and I think it's really cool. I don't know. Yeah, for sure. I liked it. Right on. Well, thanks for being here. And with that, I'm going to go ahead and let you go for the evening there in your urine central time, right. Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, let you get on with your evening. And I'll say goodbye to the audience there. And thanks, Randy, for monitoring the room for me. And with that you have a great evening, Brett, and we will be talking to you soon. Yeah, awesome. Thank you. Thank you for being here on this episode of her brotherhood with us where we met yet another amazing, inspirational woman. You don't forget, it's brought to you by her brotherhood box that you can go check out on her brotherhood calm and I've turned a lot of subscription boxes and I didn't like the masculine ones or the feminine ones. So I made one myself and turn it into the best of both. Hope you check it out. Thanks for being here. I hope you check it out again soon. Make sure you follow us share it with anybody that you think might be interested. And if you're on clubhouse, come find me there because we're going to be recording some more there in the future. Alright, guys go out. Lead a great life.