Survival Kits

Craig Edwards Field Director with the Boy Scouts of America met with LifeCaps to receive dozens of free survival kits for distribution to some local troops around the greater Salt Lake area. To obtain the rank of Eagle Scout, the boys need to pass the test and obtain their Wilderness Survival merit badge. The fifth requirement is to put together personal survival kits and a survival pill such as LifeCaps could now be added.

Requirements for the Wilderness Survival merit badge:

1. Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses likely to occur in backcountry settings, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters, insect stings, tick bites, and snakebites.
2. From memory, list the seven priorities for survival in a backcountry or wilderness location. Explain the importance of each one with your counselor.
3. Describe ways to avoid panic and maintain a high level of morale when lost, and explain why this is important.
   1. Cold and snowy
   2. Wet (forest)
   3. Hot and dry (desert)
   4. Windy (mountains or plains)
   5. Water (ocean, lake, or river)

Describe the steps you would take to survive in the following conditions:

4. Put together a personal survival kit or survival kits and be able to explain how each item in it could be useful. (Sample Kit)
5. Using three different methods (other than matches), build and light three fires.
6. Do the following:
   1. Show five different ways to attract attention when lost.
   2. Demonstrate how to use a signal mirror.
   3. Describe from memory five ground-to-air signals and tell what they mean.
7. Improvise a natural shelter. For the purpose of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter.
8. Explain how to protect yourself from insects, reptiles, and bears.
9. Demonstrate three ways to treat water found in the outdoors to prepare it for drinking.
10. Show that you know the proper clothing to wear in your area on an overnight in extremely hot weather and in extremely cold weather.
11. Explain why it usually is not wise to eat edible wild plants or wildlife in a wilderness survival situation.

Daryl Stevenett Founder of LifeCaps thinks it would be a good idea for everyone, not just Boy Scouts, to learn how to stay alive in emergency situations.

Tags: survival, Survival Kits, wilderness survival

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 10:57 am and is filed under Survival Kits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.