Welcome
Bravely done.
You took the first step. Remember to breathe. It’s time for one more.
Welcome to the Be Brave Blog: an amalgam of all things GutMonkey. This is where to go for the latest and greatest GutMonkey news. A place to see content like new video and pictures and share articles and quotes that reinforce and challenge our mission.
GutMonkey's mission and direction have been influenced by a confluence ideas from legends of outdoor education, like Outward Bound founder, Kurt Hahn.
“I regard it as the foremost task of education to insure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an undefeatable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self denial, and above all, compassion.”
Kurt Hahn’s words ring true to our mission. Yes, it’s about education, but more specifically education through building resilience and taking positive risks. As experiential educators we design programs that challenge people’s attachments to an ordinary day. The Be Brave Blog should be no different.
So, on this inaugural post, we’d like to invite you to a shared experiential challenge.
We want to you to share with the community where you choose to Be Brave.
Step 1:
Get a Be Brave sticker from a GutMonkey Program. We’ll be giving out a bunch at the NACCHO Conference!
Step 2:
Stick it wherever you need a reminder to Be Brave.
We think orange looks striking on a variety of water bottle and insulated thermos sizes and colors. If you spend a lot of time adventuring, you know how important it is to stay hydrated.
Bravery is not the lack of fear. Bravery is doing something even though you’re afraid. That’s why we designed the stickers to fit nicely on an infusion mat, and we choose to use ink that would not smear from an alcohol prep pad. That means, you can keep a little orange reminder with you whenever you need to infuse.
Step 3:
Take a picture of your primo Be Brave sticker location and share it with your community. Send it to us in an email info@gutmonkey.com by clicking on the envelope icon at the bottom of this the website, or via the contact page. Or you can upload it to the comments to this post, post it to Instagram with the hashtag #gutmonkey, or post it on our Facebook page.
We'll post fresh crops of pics that you send in, and you can be GutMonkey famous!
Maggie Lou: Official GutMonkey
So, check back often to see examples of brave folks from our programs around the U.S., Canada, and beyond.
We are tremendously excited to share this new website, and blog with you, our friends, our family, and our community. We will continue to post videos and pictures from our programs here and elsewhere on the website. There will definitely be more challenges and calls to action. Like any community, we need your enthusiastic participation by commenting and sharing to make this blog a more robust and exciting destination.
Big Dog handpicked this quote to wrap up our very first Be Brave Blog Post. We'll leave you with that for now, and a hearty thank you for checking out the new site.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”