The Lookbook: Documenting a Wilderness First Aid Course with Color My Outdoors

The Lookbook is a photographic journal featuring galleries of our more robust client work and projects.

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On a chilly March weekend morning in Atlanta, 32 People of Color gathered at the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance to become certified Wilderness First Aid Responders. With settings in both an indoor classroom and the outdoors, participants learned the Patient Assessment System, how to provide effective first aid treatments for injuries and illnesses common in the outdoors, and how to make appropriate evacuation decisions.

Sponsored by Color My Outdoors, a nonprofit whose mission is to help People of Color re-establish their connection with nature and the earth, and taught by two instructors from NOLS, or the National Outdoor Leadership School, a nonprofit global wilderness school, my assignment was to document the weekend through photography and videography in an effort to capture the positive impact that the work Color My Outdoors is embarking upon has on communities of color, the results of which act as a proof of concept, directly affecting funding outcomes for Color My Outdoors.

With a couple of years of familiarity with one another under our belts, this project would mark the third time Show and Tale Creative has worked with Color My Outdoors. From a personal and business standpoint, working with Simone Adams—Founder and Executive Director of Color My Outdoors—and her team is in perfect harmony with my interests in both realms. And for this project in particular, it was an especially heartwarming honor to share community with so many people who look like my Mom and my Brother, my Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins, and like me, within a space that has played such a pivotal role in my development as an adult, as the outdoors has.

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The Training

This extensive gallery highlights what participants learned through a combination of classroom training, guided examples of use cases, and practical application through role play of real-world scenarios, all facilitated by NOLS instructors Brenda Lo and Justin Johnson. Students were taught the Patient Assessment System, how to provide effective first aid treatments for injuries and illnesses common in the outdoors, and how to make appropriate evacuation decisions and safely prepare an injured person for evacuation. They were then given the tools to practice these lessons, with situations to reenact in which they could apply what they had learned.

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Some photos might be cropped by the gallery settings and are best viewed in expanded mode by clicking on the gallery

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The Video Recap

Along with capturing stills of the weekend, I was able to create a recap video that was able to underscore not only the education portion of the weekend, but also the community and relationships that were built in that short period of time, the joy everyone felt and the positive energy radiating within the space, and the power of building accessible bridges and connectors to the outdoors with Black and Brown people in mind, all underscoring how vital programs like these are to Communities of Color, and the important role organizations like Color My Outdoors play in authentically bringing them to the people.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8b00d2_1657e69001c14c9b9329c1840cb2c587/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Click to expand. Allow a few seconds for videos to load at full resolution.

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The Interviews

After the course finished late Sunday afternoon, I was able to get three attendees to participate in short interviews about their experiences and thoughts on the weekend. These interviews act not only as testimonials to the importance of the Wilderness First Aid course, but also as a testament to what Color My Outdoors means to the people lucky enough to be within its orbit.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8b00d2_fbd33615bbaa4712b21ac81d09d015b3/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Click to expand. Allow a few seconds for videos to load at full resolution.

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Doing this kind of work for clients aligned with my vision for what the outdoors can look like and what people power can accomplish has been my aim with Show and Tale Creative for a long time. Being able to realize that goal more and more as time goes on has been an assurance that I am growing in the right direction and defining a path that can be unique within the outdoors and the creative service industry.

But none of that is possible without phenomenal organizations like Color My Outdoors and the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance. Please visit both of their websites to learn more about these wonderful organizations and how you can help them continue to thrive.