SPOTLIGHT : A Class With Environmental Impact : Students Are Learning the Ropes of Outdoors Life on Wilderness Wednesdays

‘We really do validate a person’s effort more than their successes. Just to try is all that we’re looking for.’

Randy Childs, Field coordinator

Straddling a pair of fat branches, Randy Childs surveys an elaborate web of rope ladders and nets hanging between two large oak trees. The ropes are strung precariously through twisted branches 20 feet above the ground.

Childs prepares the rope skills’ tests before his students arrive at Calamigos Ranch, located in a secluded, 80-acre wooded area in the Santa Monica Mountains. Childs’ students are 13 teen-agers, including six from a drug rehabilitation program in Malibu, who are part of an outdoor education program called Wilderness Wednesdays.

Through Wilderness Wednesdays, a four-week program of outdoor adventures put on by The Wilderness Institute of Woodland Hills, teen-agers are expected to develop a better appreciation of their environment while learning more about themselves.

“We really do validate a person’s effort more than their successes,” said Childs, of Thousand Oaks. “Just to try is all that we’re looking for. If a person pushes a little harder than the time before, that’s what counts.”

For Childs, 39, a lean, muscular veteran outdoorsman, one challenge is to string an elaborate course of ropes, cables, logs and platforms in the trees. His group will not work on the ropes, however, until after completing a series of “trust games” designed to build teamwork.

“They build up to this point, the ropes,” Childs said. “It would be difficult for them if they started out here. We begin with a series of icebreakers to establish group rapport. We blindfold them and take away their eyesight to handicap them for a while and change things so that they see in a new light. They learn to interact with people they never knew before.”

The Wilderness Institute stresses teamwork in all of its group programs. Students are taught to trust others as well as to challenge themselves.

“We provide a safe environment such as rock climbing or the ropes course and we ask them to try and push themselves a little, to see if they can go a little further than before,” said Kirk Clayton, 33, a Calabasas naturalist and Wilderness Institute instructor. “At first, kids are always apprehensive. Taken out of their normal environment and put in a new environment, they have fears of animals or something.”

Heather Buettner, 15, of Agoura Hills, and Sergio Caovillo, 19, of Westlake Village, two of Childs’ 13 students, showed no fear of the ropes dangling above their heads. Despite their inexperience at swinging between trees, they were anxious to test their skills.

“I’ve climbed trees but never ropes,” Caovillo said. “I just want to stay up on top and I’m just going to watch out for No. 1.”

Childs has taught three years for The Wilderness Institute and been involved in outdoor education for 15 years. He is used to working with students of all ages but is most gratified by working with children with cancer.

“The cancer kids have provided me with such powerful moments,” he said. “I worked with one girl who had her leg amputated at the hip who knew how long she had to live. After that it was difficult for me to go back and work with normal kids and not feel that they were wimps.”

Wilderness Wednesdays was initiated last month and is open to youths aged 12-15. The group meets every Wednesday in August for a daylong outing. Each session costs $36. The four-week series runs $130.

At the second meeting of the program next week, teen-agers will be taught rock climbing and mountaineering skills at Stoney Point in Chatsworth. An aquatics program is set for Aug. 19 at Lake Castaic in which students learn wind surfing and surfing skills. The following week students will be shown wilderness skills such as how to build a shelter and fire, how to track animals, and how to work with a map and compass.

The Wilderness Institute schedules a variety of outdoor skills classes including white water rafting, hiking, bicycling, snorkeling, windsurfing and scuba diving. The nonprofit organization also schedules special outings for private companies and the handicapped.

Information: 818-887-7831.