Boy Scouts Teach Survival Skills at West Muskingum

Students at West Muskingum Middle School learned a lesson in survival Thursday.

For the past six weeks, the Muskingum Valley Council Boy Scouts have worked with fifth graders at West Muskingum on a program called “Team Outdoor Challenge.” The program brought children together outside of the classroom, to learn firsthand essential survival skills and safety tips from the pros.

“This is the final day of the “Team Outdoor Challenge” that we’ve been doing with 30 West Muskingum Middle School students, we started six weeks ago, we worked on team building, fire starting, cooking, compass work, and some knots and lashing,” said Executive Director, Ed Mulholland.

All of the students’ hard work over the past six weeks helped prepare them for Thursday’s field day challenge. Students were divided into five teams and competed in a compass course, where they encountered several different reward challenges. Mulholland said these skills are about more than just becoming a Boy Scout, they’re necessary survival skills the students can use the rest of their lives.

“In learning outdoor skills, they’re challenging themselves to learn new things they’re not used to, when they’re doing compass and distance, they’re having to calculate how many steps does it take to go 262 feet, so we’re seeing them do math, they’re using their hands, they’re learning to work as a team,” Mulholland said.

The Boy Scouts will continue the program in the spring with another 30 students.