“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.
