For gender-diverse youth ages 13–16
10:00 am–4:00 pm each Saturday, plus a weekend overnight and a potluck for families
Fall 2025–Spring 2026 Schedule: Contact us for dates.
Tuition: $850 for the year
This monthly Saturday program, with an overnight campout in May, provides a safe and fun space for trans, nonbinary, and genderqueer youth to explore the natural world, gain wilderness skills, and build community with one another. Within this caring container, young people can learn, play, take on healthy challenges, step into their leadership, and just be themselves!
Time in nature enhances resilience, well-being, and self-esteem, while learning survival and awareness skills helps kids and teens to cultivate awareness and emotional regulation. As young people connect with nature, they strengthen their connection with their own inner knowing and with those around them, and feel more at home in themselves and on the planet.
Our curriculum will incorporate:
- Sensory awareness activities
- Games and storytelling
- Outdoor living skills and crafts
- Friction fire making
- Shelter building
- Tracking our wild neighbors
- Sit spots—a mindfulness exercise in nature
The series will include a family potluck in the spring to expand the circle of connection.
Swallowtail Instructors
Raei Bridges | they/them
Raei was born and raised in the San Fernando Valley in California and always sought out ways to deepen their connection to nature. As a child, Raei could be found playing in the mud, climbing trees, and observing insects. Raei leads backcountry trips for BIPOC individuals through their grassroots organization, the Rusty Anvil, which creates safe and noncompetitive space for people of color to reconnect to the natural world and build a deeper outdoor community. Raei is a certified SOLO Wilderness First Responder and Kripalu Mindful Outdoor Guide, and a trained Wild Mt. Rite Of Passage Guide.
Rowan Quinn K Davis | they/them
Rowan Quinn (Hawk Moth) grew up constantly running around outside with no shoes, and this spirit still lives inside of them. Their love of nature and exploration came from hours of climbing trees, playing in the mud, and going on family camping and rock climbing trips. Rowan studied at Hampshire College, examining the intersections of education, architecture and design, dance, circus arts, and community. Outside of Flying Deer, Rowan has most recently worked for the Hampshire College Early Learning Center, Greenagers, and Jacob’s Pillow.
