Our high school Changemakers gathered on a unseasonably balmy weekend in January 2024 to receive their Wilderness First Aid and CPR Training from Backcountry Pulse, an amazing Latina owned small business based in Colorado.

The Changemakers are developing their leadership and trip leading skills, so it is important for them to have Wilderness First Aid training to know how to care for other students, friends, family, and strangers while leading trips for Cottonwood Institute or recreating outdoors.

Raquel Sapp, Founder and CEO, kept students engaged with interactive scenarios and personal stories of injuries she has encountered recreating and training outdoors, when she worked on an ambulance, and in a hospital setting.

So if you exploring the great outdoors and cut yourself with a knife, are choking on summer sausage, dislocate your shoulder, or have an open pneumothorax, the Changemakers are trained to spring in to action, stabilize the injury, and plan for your evacuation if necessary.

We are also really impressed with Backcountry Pulse’s approach to Wilderness Medicine. They are challenging a common “one-size fits all” approach and increasing representation in the field and we love their patient-centric approach to care.

Our courses weave in issues that are not normally addressed in wilderness medicine programming such as considerations across ancestral homelands we recreate on and attention to the dynamics of race, culture, ability level, and gender identity. Our patient assessment system utilizes tangible tools for rescuer mental health though evidence-based trauma informed practices to promote longevity and resiliency for individuals and teams who work and recreate outdoors. – Backcountry Pulse

We wanted to give a huge shout out the Changemakers for giving up their weekend to get trained up. And a huge thanks to Raquel for leading an amazing training and to Larrk Foundation and Tony Grampsas Youth Services Program for making this training for our Changemakers possible.

Written by Ford Church, Founder and Executive Director, Cottonwood Institute