We protect what we love

FRIDAY . 29 . 10 . 21 .

Good morning wonderful people of FWP. We hope you've had a splendid, sunshine-filled week.

Whoa - last weekend was absolutely unreal. The team at FWP want to say a huge thank you to all guests who dedicated their time to host some fantastic sessions. The weekend had a great balance of creativity, education and good conversation. We also want to thank everyone who purchased a ticket and/or donated to FWP - we really hope you are feeling rested, relaxed and ready to reconnect with the world.

We had some great feedback from some of the attendees (which is always much appreciated):

"Thanks so much to everyone for putting on such a fab weekend of sessions!! I found them highly informative and certainly learnt a lot." - Felicity

"One of the most informative weekends I've been to! Honestly so grateful to all the organisers. I've learnt so much! And looking forward to retrying my poor attempt at the watercolour" - Tilly

In case you missed it, we've provided you with a brief wrap...

WATERCOLOUR PAINTING WITH MAX ROMEY 

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Max in action, and everyone following along on the right.

Max Romey quickly and casually whipped up a masterpiece, and answered a bunch of questions from the audience. Some key takeaways from this session:

• A drug habit would be cheaper then Max's watercolour paper addiction
• Vodka and gin are appropriate replacements for water - whilst they're practical in sub zero temperatures as they don't freeze, they can also help to really draw out (pun intended) your creative side 😉
• The trick is to be the most creative artist - not the most photorealistic
• The best watercolour kit is the one that you have with you and use

For me, the highlight of the session was hearing Lisa's story - Lisa's mum fell in love with Max's paintings on Instagram, so bought her mum the exact same watercolour pens that Max was using at the time. Now they both had the opportunity to paint along with Max and they both found the session so inspiring. That is pretty darn cool!

A screenshot of the artworks that we made in an hour (there were less 'expectation versus reality' attempts then what I expected - everyone's paintings were sooooo good)

LGBTQ+ ALLIES IN THE OUTDOORS SESSION

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This session, hosted by Riley Edwards from ClimbingQTs was so insightful. Understanding how to be an LGBTQ+ ally in any space should be mandatory. Here at FWP, we are going to make this session essential viewing for all new volunteers, as we want our events to be as inclusive as possible.

Some practical tips to increase your ally-ship:

• Displaying your pronouns or introducing yourself in team meetings with your pronouns
• Practicing gender-neutral language
• If hosting an event, have discounted tickets for members of marginalised communities to increase accessibility
• Consult with members of the community (and remember, one person does not represent the entire community)
• Be a visible ally - have a rainbow pin on your shirt, a patch on your backpack or a sticker on your laptop/phone case

WILDERNESS FIRST AID

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Adam from Survive First Aid joined us to talk through some essential safety kit whilst exploring out on the trails. And although the focus was on a wilderness setting, Adam made the excellent point that even if training on the 2 Bays track down on the Mornington Peninsula for example, a snake bike is still a medi-vac situation, and if the five Victorian based ambulance helicopters are in use (for example at a traffic accident) you might be waiting quite some time. So even if you are relatively close to civilization, it's still best practice to carry key first aid items in your running vest

Some key tips for keeping safe on the trails were -

• ALWAYS carry a snake bandage - in particular the SMART bandage, which makes application easy
• Invest in a PLB - These will triangulate your location in a heartbeat and get help on the way to you ASAP. Adam recommends the KTI PLB
• Tell someone where you're going and when you plan to be back. Make sure there is a plan if you don't check in, just in case!
• A water bladder can make a great split for busted arms and ankles, as demonstrated by Adam & Majell above!

Adam runs single day wilderness first aid courses specifically for trail runners - if you're interested to learn more, drop us a line. We'd love to facilitate a course over the coming months for the FWP community, so we can keep each other safe out in wild places

PROJECT: RUN FOREVER

Introducing you to a real-life captain planet: Tom Batrouney

Photo by @mattwisemanmedia

Tom Batrouney is a trail runner, surfer and people lover from Sydney's Northern Beaches. In the running world Tom calls himself an ‘eco-runner’ and promotes fashion, nature, people power and mental wellbeing.

Project: Run Forever seeks to raise much needed funds for critical environmental groups For Wild Places and Seabin Project.

Tom will start early in the morning at Manly Dam, one of his favourite, local trails with a dollar amount goal for each 10km lap. The concept of the project is simple - if donations stop flowing then he’ll stop running, but if donations keep flowing, then he'll keep running...forever.

You can either donate in advance or on the day. Whilst Tom is keen to get a good amount of donations behind me in the lead up to the event, donations on the day will be a great, fun and interactive way to raise money (and keep Tom running), so you can donate then too.

STAY TUNED FOR NEXT WEEK

Next week's newsletter will be hosted by Linda - another amazing graphic designer who recently joined the FWP team.

Until then, have a fabulous weekend.

🙏🏻 🙏🏼 🙏🏽 🙏🏾 🙏🏿

Thanks again for taking the time For Wild Places. We appreciate everything that you do to conserve and preserve wild places.

Elanor, and the For Wild Places team.

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We acknowledge the the First Nations people who have been custodians of land, waters and culture for tens of thousands of years. We pay respects to First Nations Elders past, present and emerging.

This newsletter was written on the stolen lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation.

To these people, we pay our respects.

Always was, always will be.

By For Wild Places

We're a group of adventurers who love to

protect wild places we run on