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Atlatl

Interested in Atlatl?

Need Financial Aid? Click here.

Our financial aid philosophy is take what you need and give what you can. We recognize that there are economic hardships, and we want to be accessible to all, so we ask that you pay whatever it is that you can.

The more you can pay, the more children we are able to extend aid to. Before you request financial aid we ask families to consider if there are family members or friends who might help provide a scholarship to your family for this program.

While nobody has ever been turned away for lack of funds, our ability to accommodate financial aid requests rests on the strength of our program enrollment and the generosity of the individuals, businesses and foundations that partner with Wild Earth to make financial aid possible.

We're in this together! Many of us are stretching ourselves to make sure that cost doesn't get in the way of anyone playing, exploring and learning in nature.

How to ask for aid–

Requests for financial aid are processed alongside your registration. This enables you to reserve a space in the program while our team is reviewing aid requests. Register now and reserve your space in Atlatl today.


 

Registration opens on July 25, 2022 at 12pm!

Click here to view our updated COVID-19 safety procedures & policies.

For:

Young men and masculine-identifying youth ages 9 – 14*


Dates:

8 Saturdays, 1 Sat-Sun Overnight (in the Spring)
Starting in September, ending in May.

  • Sat, September 24, 2022
  • Sat, October 22, 2022
  • Sat, November 12, 2022
  • Sat, December 17, 2022
  • Sat, January 21, 2023
  • Sat, February 18, 2023
  • Sat, March 25, 2023
  • Sat, April 15, 2023
  • Sat-Sun, May 6 – 7, 2023 (overnight)

Hazardous Weather Make-Up Days:

  • Sat, March 4, 2023
  • Sat, June 10, 2023

Times:

Saturdays: Rolling drop-off time from 9-9:30am – and pickup from 3-3:30pm
Overnights: Rolling drop-off time: 9:00-9:30am – and pickup from 11-11:30am

Cost:

$1,050 for 22-23 Program. Sibling discount and payment plans available. Please inquire about financial aid.

Location:

Wild Earth’s Home: 175 Rock Haven Road, Kerhonkson NY 12446

Additional Questions?

Drop us an email or give us a call and we'll be happy to answer your questions.
hello@wildearth.org
(845) 256-9830

Atlatl

This monthly program for 9–14 year old young men and masculine-identifying youth will challenge, excite and deepen connections to nature, self and community.

Atlatl is held by young men and masculine-identifying youth, fathers, teens and elders working together to create projects, challenges and adventures that awaken a part of our human blueprint.

Pronounced “aht-lat,” Atlatl provides an energetic, social and creative time for emerging adolescent youth. Each month the child will be met with opportunities to strengthen their bodies, learn and develop skills and have new and fun experiences with young adult mentors, mature men and other young men and masculine-identifying youth their age.

Through wilderness skills and group challenges, youth develop empowered self-reliance as well as the ability to serve as part of a team. Nature serves as a powerful teacher of bravery, interconnected relationship, inner-resilience, and inspiration. Tracking, stalking, friction fire, tool-making, bird language, shelter-building, story, song, and more are tools to create caring and awake young adults.

At Atlatl we mix guided play-based learning with structured skill-building activities to help youth develop into capable, empowered, young men, supported by their connections to nature, self, peers and mentors.

Youth are given opportunities to learn and develop skills, test themselves in exhilarating situations and have new and fun experiences with mentors and other youth their age.

Our activities include a wide variety of team-building games, which require young men and masculine-identifying youth to flex their decision-making muscles, voice their ideas, and cultivate a plethora of leadership capacities, including awareness and sensory acuteness, self-care and care of others, quiet mind and patience, cooperation, empathy and embracing differences, puzzle solving, detecting patterns and tracking changes, and healthy assertiveness.

Atlatl will meet one Saturday per month beginning in the fall with an overnight in the spring.

We will be sharpening our wilderness skills and deepening our connection to nature through guided activities such as:

  • Tracking
  • Fire building and fire-by-friction
  • Stalking and the art of camouflage
  • Wandering with awareness
  • Navigation
  • Storytelling
  • Discovering natural mysteries
  • Shelter building
  • Making natural cord and rope
  • Stone tool making
  • Practical camping and survival skills
  • Being outdoors through different seasons and weather
  • Games and play

What does Atlatl mean anyway?

The name Atlatl (aht-lat) comes from the Aztec language meaning extended arm. Though Cortez and his men called them estólica (spear-throwers) and feared them for their ability to puncture their chain mail and cotton armor.

The oldest version of the Atlatl tool was used over 30,000 years ago to hunt mammoths, and is still a used today by the people of New Guinea and the Australian Aborigines. Other modern day uses of the Atlatl include spear throwing for sport, with awards for both distance and accuracy. The farthest recorded throw was around 850 feet.

To us, the Atlatl represents a symbolic extension of our own arms into the natural world, into our communities, into our ancestry and history, and into the youth, allowing us to propel ourselves further than we could possibly hope to alone.

A Note for Fourteen Year Olds:

Is your teen interested in becoming a Counselor in Training at Summer Camp? Joining as a participant will fulfill volunteer time required to apply as summer camp CIT, since CIT practice time will be built in throughout the program.

 


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©2023 WILD EARTH   |   EIN: 20-1675636   |   2307 Lucas Turnpike   |   High Falls, NY 12440   |   (845) 256-9830

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