An article on Sacred Rok from the Mariposa Gazette

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.

Sacred Rok’s founder, Ron Kauk, says he’s been witness ing the youth of today becoming more and more disconnected from nature. His organization is committed to improving the mental, spiritual and physical health of the next generation.

“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.

Sacred Rok is a Yosemite based non- profit organization that was founded in 2009. The organization is dedicated to getting youth into experiencing nature. The organization hosted an outing on Dec. 21. Members of Sacred Rok are shown in this image.

“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.

Giving Tuesday 2022

November 29, 2022 is the official Giving Tuesday campaign, but it is really just the start of the Giving Season. We are asking you to please consider giving a tax-deductible donation this season to help us continue to break the barriers to the outdoors for underserved youth, through Education Nature's Way.

Based on a Curriculum founded in ‘Learning by Doing' the youth expand personal boundaries through hands on activities like fly fishing, rock climbing, hiking, trail restoration, habitat restoration and workshops on Indigenous Ecological Knowledge facilitated by local Indigenous elders and knowledge keepers. The youth also learn land stewardship and conservation by hands on work within the Bishop Conservation Open Space Area (COSA) which is managed by the Environmental Department of the Bishop Paiute Tribe as well as river and riparian restoration clean-ups and in Yosemite National Park through the Climbing Rangers.

Our program seeks to help break the barriers between the youth and the outdoors. Welcoming underrepresented communities to outdoor adventures, in potentially new and interesting ways, is core to our programs. Each outing is working towards that goal in ways that include teaching independence and self-awareness through outdoor adventures, demonstrating partnership and trust through outdoor activities, and developing outdoor leaders through innovative programing and trips to public lands. Through these outings the youth start to feel comfortable being in nature, and become more self-confident in their outdoor and camping abilities and also in themselves.

Through their time with Sacred Rok the youth learn responsibility and respect for themselves, for each other and for the environment. The best way we do this is through ongoing and longterm relationships. The funding would help with transportation cost, staffing, food, and camping supplies, art and journaling materials, and educational presentations.

To donate or view our campaign please click here: Giving Tuesday

The Current Annual Report

We are happy to share our most recent Annual Report with you all. You may access the report by clicking on the image above.

Thank you for being part of the Sacred Rok community. We finished our twelfth year of working with under-served youth from the Central Valley and Eastern Sierra. What started as a camping trip with a small group of foster youth from Merced has evolved into a community of like- minded collaborators who understand the value and power of time spent learning, discovering, and connecting with the natural world.

Our mission is to support youth in nature – by helping them develop a respect for nature and in turn learning to respect themselves. We accomplish our mission through taking young people on hiking, climbing, fishing, & camping trips, teaching them the skills to be self-reliant, self-sustaining and purpose minded human beings. This is what we call, “Education Nature’s Way.”

As Covid-19 continues to be a presence in our daily lives we learned to adapt in unique ways. The need to support youth in nature for health and wellbeing has never been more pressing than now.

Throughout the year, in spite of challenges and in line with the safest practices for gathering, Sacred Rok held thirty-two trips to Yosemite National Park, Pinnacles National Park and Bishop, Ca from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

We owe special thanks to our supporters, without whom our efforts would not be possible. We are so grateful for the many donations that we receive from people who are inspired by our story, who read our newsletter, attend our events or meet our staff and volunteers in the field.

We hope you enjoy this Annual Report and we appreciate your continued support!

Sincerely,

Sacred Rok