Craver Middle School, Colorado City, CO March 17-19, 2014

[Prone to Knit]

Last fall we were contacted by an email from Tim Baird, the music teacher at Craver Middle School in Colorado City, Colorado.  We quickly responded that we'd love to take this on.

We had some initial discussion about expectations then agreed to put off the major planning until January 2014. At that time, we started lining up and figuring out what we wanted to do. Tim had the full blessing from his principal and the school district.

This was one of the activities during this week that the students were allowed to choose from. Other options that we know of were diet/exercise, building cardboard boats, and sign language.

A couple weeks prior to the event, Tim distributed a letter to the parents with a liability waiver attached. The letter explained who we were, what we were doing, what was needed for the range day, where the range was, how to sign the waiver and an invitation for them to join us both in the classroom and at the range.

On Monday and Tuesday, March 17 and 18, we were in the classroom. Another teacher was with us - history teacher Jeff Oswald. The classroom portion was done by Jim (oneshot_onehole), Elizabeth (ColoradoBoots), Shawna (COJeepGirl), Jax (JustJax), and Rich (Franktown_Kid). I was also there.

On Monday, a Revolutionary War reenactor, Rick Cowlishaw, joined us and stayed most of the day. He did different modules, interspersed with our stories and activities. This kept the kids moving and avoided long lecture periods in order to better hold their attention.

Rick shared about his role in the Revolutionary War, his clothing and kit, and firearms history of that period. The group went outside to watch him fire blanks through various firearms - lots of smoke and a big bang.

Elizabeth, Shawna and I were also in Revolutionary War outfits. We spent about 10 minutes discussing our clothing and it's function.

After discussing the distances the Redcoats had to march and the kids had an idea of the shoes they wore, Jim had those students that wanted to switch the shoes on their feet and take a few steps. It impressed on them how miserable and uncomfortable that march along Battle Road was.

Elizabeth made hardtack. It was passed out to the students. They ate it and asked for more. Those growing teens!

Unbridled Liberty offered up the idea of making cartridges and we took him up on it. It was one of the favorite activities of the kids. Jim and Elizabeth supplied the materials and instructions for this portion. We bought a hot plate and Jim heated up the pink wax and a pan of hot water. The wax was melted in a cast-iron pot without a handle in order to be as stable as we could make it, not wanting to knock hot wax onto the carpet. There was a pan of ice water to cool the formed wax. The students were able to pour wax into a bullet mold and make "ball."  Then they took their bullet and rolled them into cartridges, using coffee grounds as gun powder. It was impressed on the kids that children during the Revolutionary War made cartridges as part of their duty to their country.

The three strikes and some dangerous old men/dangerous old women stories were told. The students were assigned the names of signers of the Declaration of Independence to research and bring back to class on Tuesday.

Tuesday started off with a long discussion of firearm safety. The NRA and Jeff Cooper rules were contrasted with Appleseed rules and the kids saw they were pretty much the same, but different wording. The short video of the ATF agent that shot himself in the leg in a classroom setting was shown. The kids pointed out all the rules that had been broken.

Another reenactor, Ann Macomber, came on Tuesday. We have worked with her and the Constitutional Champions camp taking our pellet line to their wonderful event the last two years in Colorado Springs (teaches kids grades 2-6 about the founding of our country, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. We have several Appleseed instructors involved in this and our 3 strikes are told to all the kids).

Ann talked about the symbolism of four of our flags, the Liberty Bell, the eagle and the facts about Common Sense by Thomas Paine. Each of the kids was handed a clue printed on a full sheet of paper; they read their clue and guessed which of the 7 options their clue belonged to.  They would tape their sheet of paper below the proper heading which was taped to the wall and soon their papers were hitting the floor in a long train, a wonderful visual.

Ann then gave the kids an assignment to create a flag on an 11" x 11" piece of muslin with symbolism of something that was important to them. Each student then shared their flag with the group. For some, family was important, for others it was sports, their faith or leadership. The kids really put a lot of thought into their designs. Ann brought Constitutions for each of the students which included a $2 bill, which depicts the signing of the Declaration. Ann provided a blown-up copy of the Declaration for the students that wished to affix their signature.

Rich shared the Declaration discussing the events and reasons behind it. The kids read aloud about their Declaration signer.

Some of the amendments in the Bill of Rights were discussed and their direct correlation to General Gage's actions.

Rich discussed modern firearms and had many versions of rifles, pistols and revolvers present. He did a short lesson on ballistics. Under very close supervision, the students were allowed to handle them. There was no ammo in the room belonging to these firearms.

More dangerous old men and dangerous old women stories were told. The day ended with a discussion of the Appleseed safety rules and reminders about how to prepare for the day at the range.

On Wednesday, we got to the range at 8:00 am to set up for the shoot. Two more instructors were able to join with us: Danny (Skinner) and Tom (topcat). We used Rivers Edge Outdoors. They have held Appleseeds for the last couple years. They opened up the range just for this group and waived their range fees. Several people joined in to help us - four of the parents and also Luke Wagner, the president of the Colorado Second Amendment Association. We met his group at the January 19th rally at the capitol where we had a table and they expressed a desire to help us wherever they could. When I told them of this, Luke jumped on the opportunity. Nathan, the school security officer, also joined in.

The kids again went over the safety and safe rifle rules and the day started with a Redcoat target. Because every rifle but one was borrowed, we split the 29 students into two teams for relays. We had time to cover the six steps of firing a shot, then did a couple of cracker shoots. A Garand and an AR-15 were brought out and many of the students were able to shoot those.

On Thursday, the school had each of the intensive groups work up a presentation on what they had learned. Maybe I was a bit prejudiced, but this group did a bang up job and outshone all others. The students, some parents and school officials circulated to see the different groups' displays.

These kids posted the signed Declaration. They had broken into several groups, each working on a display. There were safety rules, cases they had picked up from the range, Constitutions, some $2 bills, some had the flags they had made. One group of girls was telling small parts of the strikes and had kids designing their own flags on colored pieces of tissue paper. One group of boys was acting out two of our dangerous old men stories. They were listening! Tim put together a wonderful PowerPoint presentation that was shown to each group that cycled through.

We met the school officials, including the superintendent. They were very thrilled about what we had done. The principal came in and out of the room during the week and was very supportive.

This event has gotten wide coverage. Here are the links so far:

The breaking story:
http://www.krdo.com/news/students-at-the-shooting-range-for-gun-safety/25055098

http://madworldnews.com/guns-brought-colorado-classroom-shooting-spree-ensues/

KRDO's noon web question:
https://www.facebook.com/KRDONewsChannel13/posts/722554477795236

https://www.facebook.com/Pueblofreedomandrights/posts/10201779059731653

NRA picked it up last night: Over 54,000 likes, 12,500 shares and 2,300 comments. The power of Facebook can be amazing. This links to Katie Pavlich's story on Townhall.
https://www.facebook.com/NationalRifleAssociation/posts/598674699846?comment_id=916631&ref=notif&notif_t=like

Scout's show last night:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/appleseedradio/2014/03/21/getting-rifle-marksmanship-into-the-schools

The other news station that came out to the range:
http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/Students-Shoot-Rifles-For-A-Class-251120091.html

This is the radio show for Rivers Edge Outdoors.
https://www.facebook.com/ShooterReadyRadio/posts/740668385963699

http://gunssavelives.net/blog/colorado-public-school-students-take-field-trip-to-shooting-range-practice-live-fire-with-appleseed/

http://universalfreepress.com/guns-brought-into-middle-school-live-fire-followed/

http://patriotoutdoornews.com/9448/colorado-public-school-takes-students-field-trip-shooting-range

Finally, a negative one:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/colorado-school-firing-range-field-trip

http://helpthesheeple.com/2014/03/21/colorado-public-school-students-take-field-trip-to-shooting-range-practice-live-fire-with-appleseed/comment-page-1/

http://freepatriot.org/2014/03/21/guns-brought-public-middle-school-classroom-live-fire-followed/

Ramah, CO posted a blurb and promoted our other shoots
http://www.newsof.org/news/Ramah-Colorado

A new story out of Florida
http://www.bizpacreview.com/2014/03/22/revolutionary-colo-public-middle-school-kids-go-on-shooting-range-field-trip-to-learn-gun-safety-107838?utm_content=fbshare-js-large&utm_campaign=&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=fbshare.me-facebook-post&awesm=fbshare.me_iMVV

The Libertarian Republic
http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/colorado-school-takes-students-gun-range/#axzz2wjd7JWSR

Judge Andrew Napolitano
https://www.facebook.com/JudgeNapolitano/posts/10152289292826774

I'm not even going to start posting all the blogs this is showing up on.  Remember, just the NRA piece has almost 14,000 shares.

Nero found:
http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/123469-students-field-trip-every-gun-control-fanatics-worst-nightmare/

Eagle Rising:
http://eaglerising.com/5315/colorado-public-school-teaches-real-gun-safety-gun-grabbers-get-angry/#1SPB4JuV2Skzgos3.01

Gun Rights Across America - Colorado
https://www.facebook.com/GunRightsAcrossAmerica1/posts/10202711382339837?comment_id=6784639&ref=notif&notif_t=comment_mention

The Washington Times
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/24/colo-middle-schoolers-take-field-trip-gun-range/#.UzF7iI_CGiw.twitter

The Washington Times on Facebook - Asking the question Helpful or dangerous?
https://www.facebook.com/TheWashingtonTimes/photos/a.10151079260184411.454799.35994014410/10152290005939411/?type=1&comment_id=268771758&ref=notif&notif_t=comment_mention

Ben Swann
http://benswann.com/co-middle-school-students-take-field-trip-to-gun-range/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=nl

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. The video they attached has outdated Appleseed pricing in it. Thanks, Wild Deuce.
http://jpfo.org/alerts2014/alert20140328.htm

Gun Owners of America shared March 31st
https://www.facebook.com/GunOwners/posts/10151982604981167

Calguns
http://search.snapdo.com/?st=ds&q=calguns

Tom Harbold, Carroll County Times
http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/columnists/opinion/tom_harbold/tom-harbold-program-plants-seed-of-responsibility/article_d259f147-6e9c-5c02-a65a-ac1f5a2b60e5.html

Another article done by our very own ColoradoBoots:
http://commonsensenewsusa.com/2014/04/15/shooting-at-school-can-be-a-good-thing-by-elizabeth-blackwood/

We will be posting pictures. We are in the process of identifying those children that we don't have model releases on to make sure all photos posted can be public. Unfortunately, the video of the skits contains a child that was specifically excluded on the model release by the parents.

Kim

[Nero]

Nothing to say, but:  JUST AWESOME!!!      

[Colorado2a]

Luke Wagner here, from the Colorado Second Amendment Association.

I can't thank you enough for putting this on. What a wonderful experience to see so many kids excited about American history as well as marksmanship.

I really hope this turns into a trend in Colorado and if it does, I will be there to volunteer my time.

Thank you again!

[ColoradoBoots]

This event could not have been accomplished without the hours of donated time and treasure from our wonderful gun community's volunteers!!!!  Donated ammo, range time and so much more.  I can't express how moved I was at the thought of teaching in a PUBLIC school about our wonderful heritage and guns.  Felt quite felonious too.  When we rolled the cartridges with the kids, we used coffee for black powder.  The classroom smelled great!

I also loved that the kiddos re-enacted our stories for their presentations on Thursday.  We all knew the guns were fun, but we all want the stories of sacrifice to stick, and they seemed to. 

Looking forward to doing more of these!

Elizabeth

[spitstickler]

Good work! 

[Prone to Knit]

Thanks for responding Luke and Elizabeth.

Here's one more link. It contains the same report as another but we're tracking anything that this event shows up in.

http://universalfreepress.com/guns-brought-into-middle-school-live-fire-followed/

Kim

I'm going to just add these to the original post as they keep coming in.

[TaosGlock]

Shared on my FB page!

[COJeepGirl]

  I am SO proud of everyone who volunteered their time and resources to this event. The outpouring of support after this came out has been AMAZING. I am SO , so happy to have been a part of this revolutionary week! The kids were awesome. I am still surprised and amazed at them. The day on the range was just perfect. Everyone was safe and the kids showed total maturity and responsibilty when handling their rifles. I love my Appleseed family so much!!! I am looking forward to more public school events!

[Prone to Knit]

A thank you card to the Appleseed organization from the middle school teachers and students.

It says:

Appleseed Org,
With a heartfelt "thank you" we honor your time with us. This event would not have been possible without your time, teaching, organization and a myriad of other things. Your personnel was top notch and professional at all times. Thank you sooo much. We look forward to next time.  Timothy Baird

The Best program I've seen in 15 years of teaching!!! Mr. Oswald

[dreamerofdreams]

Well done!!   

[SureShotSpartan]

OUTSTANDING!! 

[Pain Killer]

One part Libertyseed, one part Appleseed = Fully Outstanding!!   

[mac66]

 I humble myself in awe 

[Fred]

I humble myself in awe 

   Likewise!

   I bet this will be written up in a future issue of the AS newsletter, too!

   Any vibrations about another one of these, in the future?

   A good promo effort will take the testimonials from this event and use them to convince other schools that they should look into doing one of these - right?

[Prone to Knit]

Fred, this school is already looking at doing it again next year and possibly adding in the high school.

I wrote the AAR in a lot of detail for a reason. If people direct teachers or admin here, they get a really good idea what something like this can be - so much more than firearms! Many of these kids really "got" the history.

Elizabeth, Shawna, Jax and I have been pushing this out to a lot of people and groups. Elizabeth and Jax have included many of our elected officials. Some of our state senators are actually going to personally acknowledge and congratulate the teachers and admin involved.

So please, everyone reading this, use it and the links to convince someone in your area to hold an event like this. Jim and I are always available to answer questions. The two teachers involved volunteered to talk with any other districts about this. If you come up with someone, please PM us for Tim's and Jeff's phone numbers.

Kim

[ColoradoBoots]

Just saw the krdo blurb shared on survivalblog.com.    That site has always recommended Appleseed and it was great to see them pick it up.  This post is under Odds and Sods March 22, 2014.

[Prone to Knit]

Just updated the NRA link above so that our post is isolated. Had to do some weird embedding stuff to capture it. Look at the likes and shares - almost 60,000 likes and almost 14,000 shares.

I also added four more activities we did to the original post. As I think of them and as more news stories come up, I'm putting them all in the original post.

Kim

[COJeepGirl]

I know I'm not that trendy but...

[Skinner]

WOW!! what an event. I am proud and honored to have been a part of it. The kids were great, all very respectful  and willing to learn about history, sacrifices made  to preserve our freedom and liberties we enjoy today and learn rifle safety and marksmanship. A BIG THANK YOU to all who organized this and many others that volunteered to make this happen.

[Nero]

Another repost of the video, from one of my feeds:

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/03/123469-students-field-trip-every-gun-control-fanatics-worst-nightmare/

(Feel free to move into your OP and delete this.)

[Prone to Knit]

When this slows down, we'll see if we can get the hit number from KRDO, as everything links back to their video.

Kim

[ThePoet]

Outstanding job!  I shared the NRA post on our FB page.  Please share any additional press that comes out of it.  (We might have to subscribe to a clipping service to keep track of it all.  A good problem to have!)

[BigBear]

It was fun.  I'm looking forward to the pics!

[JustJax]

We had a great time with these kids.  But the true heroes of this story are the teachers who initiated it and the principal and administrators who relented and allowed us to come in and do our thing.

Apparently some of the kids acted out a few of the stories they heard.  They got the Samuel Whittemore story down with flair.  What a joy!  The stories of April 19th live on.

Just Jax
Revive1775.com

[brianheeter]

Congratulations and Well Done!  I just watched the KRDO noon piece.  A link was posted on INGO (INdiana Gun Owners forum).  Great all around.  Great for the kids, great for Appleseed, great for our country.  Thank you!

brian

[COJeepGirl]

I would like to give Prone To Knit a gigantic
Kudo. This woman is a machine. She eats, drinks,
breathes, and LIVES Appleseed. I worked the 3 days
in Colorado City, then the following Saturday at the Air Force
Academy and I am fried. Beat. This woman and her
husband work just about every weekend, travel out of state for
conventions, Liberty Seeds, all of it, and they
keep on truckin. Hats OFF and 3 Huzzahs for Team Heath!!!

[CSTCoach]

Well done guys/gals!

[Micah]

This has to be my favorite thing about Appleseed...you find an account of our instructors teaching middle school students right next to one about Air Force Academy cadets. It truly is a program for anyone and everyone.

[Johnnyappleseed]

Excellent work !
Was this event done with the auspices of the school principle and school board ?

I'm thinking the teacher (Mr Tim Baird)  who liasoned with our AS crew would make a great candidate for an elected office .

[Prone to Knit]

Johnnyappleseed, Tim Baird got the approval from the principal, the school superintendent (I believe) and the country sheriff before he even approached us.

I added a couple of new links to the original post.

Kim