Volunteer Appreciation Night 2019

The New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors held their annual Volunteer Appreciation Night, with food from Garcia’s, door prizes, awards, talks, and conversation.

Chris Fritzsche gave a preview of upcoming projects, quite exciting for me. An impressive number of backpacking projects are scheduled for June.

David Ryan was guest speaker, talking about locations from his book 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Albuquerque, many of which our organization will work on in 2020. He finished the speech with a touching quote from his dog:

All walks are good,

I don’t know how long this walk is going to be,

But I know one thing,

This is the best walk I have ever been on,

Because this is the walk I am on right now.

Lucky , an American Shepherd Hound

Wilderness First Aid Training

Jennifer Sublett from the Santa Fe National Forest and Stephanie McGovern with the Gila National Forest presented a 3-day (!) first-aid course for 19 members of the New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors, Socorro Search and Rescue, and the Northwest Chapter of the Back Country Horsemen of New Mexico, November 22-24 at the Open Space Visitor Center in Albuquerque.

cpr dummies

Challenging scenarios helped prepare us for unexpected situations, stretching our brains. Later scenarios showed us that as humans we are imperfect, and are prone to overlook fundamentals in an emergency, like responder safety, or comforting a patient with conversation and eye contact.

The course was phenomenal . Thanks so much to the organizers and venue.

On the second day a couple of class members were lying down outside on the lawn, getting ready for a scenario as victims. When two visitors to the nature center went past, they let them know what was happening. “Don’t worry, we are part of a first aid class.” The visitors replied, “Oh, I thought it was just Albuquerque.”