When your day of training starts with breakfast at 6:30 a.m. and ends after dark, you know it's serious.

Two weeks ago ninety staff from across Virginia State Parks came to Douthat State Park for three and a half days of training. Some of the attendees were veteran staff, presenters, coaches, and the fantastic team that planned and conducted the annual training. The others were hoping to learn the basics of how to create and present programs in our parks interpreting the natural world and history and culture of the area in and around our Virginia State Parks.

And the Gauntlet?

Guest presenters Doug Wood and his wife, Dianne Anestis from Trails Inc. conducted several sessions on historical interpretation. One included a hands on demonstration of a Native American gauntlet ceremony. Tribe members stand in two parallel rows and captives are forced to run through the path between the rows while they are beaten with switches. Most people think of this as torture or punishment but we learned that the ceremony represents the birth canal and most captives enter as enemies from another way of life and exit as new members of the tribe. 

Staff are instructed in the workings of the gauntlet
as the captives are prepared for their role elsewhere

For the brand new seasonal staff, those with only a year's service and our AmeriCorps members, the training culminated in a 5-8 minute presentation in front of their peers and sometimes their supervisor. If you were new to the whole concept of interpreting the natural world or history, that would be a pretty intimidating experience.

At the end of the training, the new staff were welcomed into the family of Virginia State Park Rangers, interpreters, naturalists and environmental educators. You can meet one of these staff at any of hundreds of programs offered to visitors to our 36 Virginia State Parks this summer. It is easy to find a program in your area of interest. Our programs and events can be searched by date range, park and type of event. Be sure to subscribe to our weekly eNewsletter where we'll share the programs coming up in the next ten days and once a month the programs coming up for the month. You can subscribe here.