Sacred Ground

Founder of local group speaks on new challenges

By JEANNIE TYRRELL Staff Writer

Sacred Rok is a Yosemite-based nonprofit that was established in 2009 — and dedicated to getting youth into experiencing nature.

By helping youth learn to respect nature, Sacred Rok founder Ron Kauk believes the organization is also helping youth learn to respect themselves.

“We’re always talking about what it means to have the kids going out into nature and having that be part of an education, and our nonprofit has been going for about 12 years,” said Kauk.

He said the fundamentals for the nonprofit have been built by having over 30 years of experience with rock climbing in Yosemite and also by traveling the world.

“I was getting to a stage of life where the knowledge from those experiences have challenged me to find the wisdom in it,” he said.

“So to challenge myself to find the wisdom in it, we started a nonprofit to help youth connect to nature.” Sacred Rok is based in Yosemite, but the organization has expanded toward the area of Bishop.

“We keep challenging ourselves to make sense of the importance of what we’re doing,” he said. Presently, Kauk said he’s been witnessing the youth of today becoming more and more disconnected from nature.

“Our kids are getting so disconnected with all the technology. We’re kind of in a state of shock because stuff is happening so fast and we can’t keep up with the side effects,” he said.

Kauk described the situation he’s seeing as an uphill battle with human addictions, especially when it comes to social media. The challenges include over-powering a strengthening pull that is keeping youth and adults away from going outside.

Kauk agreed that people today are becoming more and more immersed in a “virtual” reality.“ It’s really challenging me in a way to think about how you can articulate what it means to have an education about being human and about how we are nature,” he said.

“We are nature, but now we’re getting polluted with a lot of stuff, just like our atmosphere is getting polluted.” He said his overall goal is to hold onto the commitment that Sacred Rok has toward the health and well-being of the next generation.

“I just keep waking up to the simplicity of what we do,” said Kauk. “We’re taking kids for walks in nature.” He added it’s far more than that. Kauk said one elment of the program is about adults interacting with youth and getting along naturally. “That can promote your authentic self and if there’s anything we want to be in life, it’s our authentic self,” he said. “I joke around a lot of times by saying we’ve got to set up a 12-step program back to being human.”

Tracking his history as a rock climber, Kauk said all he’s prepared for are challenges. He said he’s faced one challenge after another, leading himself to scale a 20,000 foot rock tower at one point in his life. “I look at these challenges as more of a motivation for me” he said.

Looking ahead, Kauk said he plans to expand Sacred Rok even farther and collaborate with organizations with common interests.“We really want to collaborate in every way, shape or form through our communities and locally,” he said.“Not only to try to get more support, but to get a deeper understanding of what our mental, spiritual and physical health is going to look like.”

Kauk also said processing the Covid-19 pandemic has added to his journey toward an understanding. He spoke about his experience with the regulations and what it meant for the nonprofit.

“It was as if we were just tested to see how much we’ll go along with everything and it puts us in a tricky position,” he said. Kauk clarified testing the waters of regulation or questioning it wasn’t to disrespect the idea of Covid-19. “We’re not trying to be that way, but with all these regulations, vaccines and masking. You just have to stand back and ask what was it all about,” he said.

Kauk explained he’s a firm believer in a person thinking clearly for themselves and using their intuition. “We’re nature. Our organization is about building community in regards to all of our relations, which means the land, the air, the water, the animal life and plant life,” he said.

Kauk said he believes people have to rise to the occasion and specifically, Sacred Rok offers day trips and camping trips for youth in foster care, youth in the probation system and for other young people who can benefit from the opportunity to learn about nature.

“People always ask if we are seeing any results. Yeah every time we go out, we enjoy ourselves and you can feel that everybody had a good time and connected,” he said.

“They’ve expanded their minds and got to think a little.”

Visit www.sacredrok.org to learn more about the non- profits activities and outings.