Searching for clues left behind

Residents learn different way of seeing at tracking event
by Yoko Minoura

Bend siblings Jules Ginsparg, 9, and Leah Ginsparg, 7, flopped down on their bellies to peer into the hollow under a boulder Saturday morning at Shevlin Park. The remains of manzanita buds left under the rock, they learned, suggested that a rodent might have sheltered there recently. Jules and Leah also examined burrows in the grass, looked at animal scat and even studied a paw print most likely left by a pet dog to learn about tracking animals.

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Philanthropy and Women

Women and philanthropy will be the subject of Kathy LeMay's presentation Tuesday at the Tower Theatre.

The 7 p.m. event will include an address from LeMay, who is nationally recognized as an expert on women and philanthropy. She leads Raising Change, a nonprofit organization that helps groups and individuals with social change agendas, including fundraising and volunteerism.

LeMay is in Bend at the invitation of Molly and Joe Kreuzman, co-directors of Coyote Trails School of Nature.

Tuesday's event will also be a showcase for 30 local nonprofit groups. Participants can get involved and learn about ways they can help local organizations. Contact: 541-482-0513.

Published daily in Bend, Oregon, by Western Communications, Inc. Copyright 2008.

Kids learn new skills at High Desert Museum

by Kate Ramsayer  / The Bulletin

The kids stood in a semicircle, eyes focused at Rebecca Moergen's feet. With a bow in one hand, a stick in the other and a small board under her boot, she crouched down, trying to start a fire. "The most important wilderness survival skill is a positive attitude," she had said earlier. "You guys think we can get a fire going?" The crowd at the High Desert Museum answered yes, and sure enough, after moving the bow back and forth to make the stick spin, a little pile of dust started smoking.

Moergen and others with the Coyote Trails School of Nature were at the High Desert Museum as part of Kids Day on Friday, teaching children how to track mammals, build a simple shelter in the woods and listen to the birds around them. Even if people just have an awareness of basic survival skills, like building a shelter or starting fire, it can help them not panic if they ever get lost in the woods, Moergen said. "We're really using primitive living skills to help people have connections to the world around them," Moergen said.

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Adventure Club takes retreat: Students learn about selves, while learning about nature

by LORI WINCE
Photo By Tim Norman/ThisWeek

Westerville resident Amanda Phillips, 8, gets help holding a tinder bundle from her aunt, New Albany resident Sandy Willmore. A middle school science teacher, Willmore encourages Philllips to blow to make the hot embers ignite during a Coyote Tracks West program at the Overbrook Jon Beltz Retreat Center April 8. Members of the NAMS Adventure Club and others from Ohio scout troops learned survival skills, including how to start a fire with a bow drill.

Members of the New Albany Middle School Adventure Club and their families learned to rub sticks together to make fire and to build shelters using only natural materials during the club's most recent event.

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