Terry Vaughan had three words for the girls who were about to trek into the woods off McAuley Road:
“Do not panic,” the former commando with the British Royal Marines said.
Vaughan owns a Huntersville team-building firm that more typically takes corporate workers into the wilderness.
The eight Latina girls he led in all-day survival training are in a scholarship program called Circle de Luz (Circle of Light) started by Rosie Molinary of Davidson.
The program will shift to a different region of the country each year, but Molinary stayed close to home with the first round of recipients, all seventh-graders at James Martin Middle School on IBM Drive in Charlotte’s University area.
On the chilly morning of Jan. 31, the girls matched up with Lake Norman-area professional women who served as their mentors. They learned how to mark a trail so they wouldn’t get lost and to work in teams to build shelters.
Vaughan calls his training program for women “Princess Survival,” but nothing about this day was dainty.
They dug fire pits and scoured for limbs and edible plants. Few, if any, dared eat the crickets that Vaughan brought in a bag to munch on. I think only I did, and just to save face.
None of the work was easy. (read the rest of the article here)…
