Forge Skills, Fuel Purpose
Red Bank Outdoor Academy Keeps Outdoor Heritage Alive in Tehama County…
Imagine a place where young people trade in their phones and tech devices for fishing lures and duck calls. A place where study and experience leads to a California Hunter Safety Certificate and a summer celebration includes homemade ice cream and cannonballs in a pool.
The place is Red Bank Outdoor Academy, a packed-to-the-brim summer experience for young people that teaches firearm safety, hunting skills, fishing, conservation and fun in the outdoors on 5,000 acres of prime hunting land in Red Bluff.
“It’s a very well-rounded outdoor sports camp,” says Brian Riley, founder, who has been operating activities on the land for 27 years. “Our mission is to educate youth 9-15 in firearm safety and hunter education and introduce them to the great outdoors,” adds Callahan Wolverton, Executive Director of the nonprofit academy. “We introduce them to the basics of ethics in terms of sportsmanship and conservation.” The list of activities is exhaustive, and includes the areas of expertise of staff, as well as guest speakers who may set up astronomy activities at night or teach skills of back country horsemen by day.
“I believe a lot of the success of this camp is the people who do this for a living,” says Riley. “We’re not recreational hunters. Everybody here is making a living.” The land is Campers are kept busy from 6am until 10:30-11pm and can level up in skills after completing a basic camp and earning a hunter’s safety certificate. Six camps are offered each summer, each being just under a week in length. Between 35 and 60 youth attend each camp.
“We make sure we have a 100 percent success rate at camp,” says Wolverton. “We take the time to make it youth-friendly.” There’s also a low camper-to-teacher ratio in acknowledgment of safety concerns around firearms and sharp objects, especially in the heat of a North State summer.
“We are stewards of our hunting heritage,” she adds. “We don’t want it to die out with the next generation. It’s ethics, safety, passion for outdoor recreation.”
For Riley, there’s a huge emphasis on making these opportunities available to a wide range of campers. “It was important to me that every kid from every walk of life could attend,” he says. “I come from a single mom situation,” he says, noting the importance of all kids having a chance to learn and enjoy.
About 60 percent of campers attend on a full or partial scholarship. Wolverton tells of a scholarship student from a Red Bluff youth association who so impressed the grandfather of another camper that he donated a hog hunt to the young man in recognition of his camp accomplishments. The young man then went on to harvest a hog and share the sausage with his fellow campers.
While most campers arrive from communities in the North State, the camp has drawn attention from all over the world. Red Bank Outdoor Academy has hosted a youth group from Taiwan and welcomed young people from South Carolina and Pennsylvania. A mixed camp allows level one and level two youth to camp together, which works well for siblings and other groups. They attend about 80 percent of activities together while completing level-appropriate skills. The camp attracts both males and females, with separate bunkhouses for each.
An annual banquet fundraiser keeps the academy in scholarships and heavy equipment such as firearms and sporting clays. This year’s will be held May 17 at the Red Bluff Community Center. “The whole community has really gotten behind this,” says Riley, who notes that the fundraiser is a popular evening for supporters.
“We are one of the only institutions that have boots on the ground to accelerate the next generation of outdoorsmen. We provide hands-on education. If we don’t, who will?” asks Wolverton. “We want our students to have fun, but we also want to stress that these skills that we are teaching are crucial to safety.”
