David has always loved camping. From family hiking and camping trips, to backpacking with his dad and the Boy Scouts, to summer camps and Outward Bound, he has spent a lot of time playing and learning outside.

As an Eagle Scout, David began organizing trips and leading outings, and as a counselor at Camp Sea Gull he taught climbing, sailing, and windsurfing, and facilitated low and high ropes initiatives. He has worked as a mentor with special-needs students, has been a raft guide on the French Broad River, and has worked as a carpenter with a local green building company.

David graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a degree in psychology. He was a teacher at The Learning Community School in Black Mountain for four years, where he focused on outdoor education and tai chi, taught academic classes and music, and offered website and technology support. David currently teaches at the Learning Village School, a nature-based program that he is helping to develop at Sacred Mountain Sanctuary.

David has trained Chen style tai chi, praying mantis kung fu, qi gong, and bagua zhang with Sifu Paolillo at the Tao Institute since 2004. David has studied nature awareness, wilderness living, and self-reliance with Richard Cleveland of Earth School, has apprenticed with CoreyPine Shane at the Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine, and has studied permaculture with Zev Friedman and Dylan Ryals-Hamilton. He is certified as a Wilderness First Responder with the NOLS Wilderness Medicine Institute.

Valerie grew up as a child of nature, always playing outside - building forts and rope swings from tall trees, and spending time helping in the garden. Her parents were Girl Scout and Boy Scout leaders, so she and her siblings enjoyed being part of those orgainzations, and camped as a family quite often.

When Valerie moved to Asheville 14 years ago, her love of the outdoors deepened as she explored these forests on her mountain bike. She learned to guide white water on the French Broad River and loves to take friends and family on the section-9 float.

Valerie has been gardening organically for 5 years and focuses on learning about the year-round production and preservation of food. In addition to her own backyard plot, she is organizing a 1/4 acre community garden in West Asheville. Val intends to grow as much food as is possible on these modest plots in order to feed the neighborhood. The campers can look forward to kraut and kim chi made from cabbage grown in her gardens.

Valerie has been a math professor at AB-Tech for twelve years. Her new learning projects include raising chickens, bees and worms. She currently studies native plant identification and their uses as food and medicine. She has been been studying Chen style tai chi, praying mantis kung fu, qi gong, and bagua zhang with Sifu Paolillo at the Tao Institute since 2005.

Rebecca was initiated into the spirit of nature and gardening at an early age. She learned about the cycles of life through the lens of her grandmother’s garden, an oasis where she spent many happy times.

Fifteen years ago, Rebecca was called to the Blue Ridge Mountains to deepen this relationship to nature. Upon discovering the vastness of this temperate region, she began studying, in depth, the plants of the Blue Ridge Province.

Rebecca began her herbal studies in 2000 with Peggy Ellis at the NC School of Natural Healing. This experience seeded a passion for health and healing through plant medicine. She went on to study Ayurveda and Ayurvedic Postpartum care and obtained certifications in Traditional and Clinical Herbalism, Flower Essence Therapy and Child Meditation.

The birth of her son Ayden in 2002, inspired Rebecca to merge all her passions, which led to a path teaching nature based summer camps at the Appalachia School of Holistic Herbalism. As Ayden matured beyond this program, Rebecca responded to his needs by facilitating summer camp on their new land. She invited longtime friends, David and Valerie Martin, to join in the fun, and the birth of a beautiful working relationship emerged.

Rebecca and her two sons were extensively involved in a pre-school cooperative for four years, where she served on the board for two of those years, and learned many valuable lessons in community, communication and administration. She also spent 5 years working with special needs children in a community goal oriented capacity.

Rebecca currently attends classes at AB Tech, and serves as administrator for True Nature Camp and The Blue Ridge School of Herbal Medicine. Her new ventures include urban farming and learning to raise chickens. Rebecca believes that all children are powerfully tuned into the spirit world of plants and thru mindful nurturing we can cultivate and inspire them to maintain this connection throughout their adult lives.

Growing up on the coast of Massachusetts, Arthur developed an early appreciation for the natural world, spending most of his time playing in the wetlands and woodlands of Cape Ann.

Arthur’s love of the wilderness later became an education, as he was able to study at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School, where he completed 14 courses covering native-style living skills and philosophy. Arthur has furthered his study of the natural world with such teachers as Richard Cleveland, Kevin Reeve, Eddie Starnater, Bruce Carroll, Kevin Tincher, Bill Kaczor, and Tom Brown III. He is a graduate of the Level I Kamana program through the Wilderness Awareness School, and is enrolled in the Roots of Herbalism program at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine in Asheville, NC.

Arthur is a Nationally Registered and North Carolina state certified EMT-Basic, as well as a certified Wilderness EMT thru SOLO Wilderness Medicine. He currently works as an EMT for Riceville Fire Department in Asheville, NC, and is preparing to finish his EMT-Intermediate course thru AB-Tech Community College in Asheville, NC.

Arthur has studied extensively under Master F.J. Paolillo in the arts of qi gong, tai chi, meditation, and Chinese internal martial arts at the Tao Institute in Asheville, NC, where he is an instructor for the children’s program.

Arthur holds an Associate Degree from Blue Ridge Community College, and is enrolled at Western Carolina University to obtain his Bachelor's Degree in Emergency and Disaster Management.

When Arthur isn't riding on an ambulance or playing in the woods, he enjoys singing and playing guitar and telling corny jokes to kids.

Red Foot has wanted to be a teacher since the fifth grade. He has been teaching primitive living skills to kids of ages 8-18 for the past four years. His love for nature began at an early age when he would spend time on his grandfather’s farm in Virginia. After graduating from Florida Atlantic University with his BA in Literature and his minor in Sociology, Red Foot spent two years in Santa Cruz, CA. His love for nature soon led him to Tom Brown Jr.’s book, The Tracker. After reading many of Tom’s other books, Red Foot found himself studying at Tom’s school, The Tracker School, where he spent a year living in a primitive shelter in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey and working as a Caretaker. It was here that Red Foot gained a deeper understanding and respect for the natural world.

Since he was a child, Red Foot has been fascinated with natural movement and has found himself studying martial arts such as: Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Capoirea, Akido, Kung Fu, Kali, Jeet Kun Do, and he is currently studying Tai Chi at the Tao Institute.

He has been training at Crossfit for the past two years, and hopes to soon become certified as a Crossfit Kid’s Trainer. Currently, Red Foot is attending classes at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, where he is receiving his teaching licensure. He is certified in Wilderness First Aid.

Emily is an enthusiastic and energetic native north Louisianan who moved up to Western North Carolina in 2002. As long as she can remember, she has felt a deep love and appreciation for nature, which was instilled into her by her family. From an early age, the wonders of nature have captivated her heart, mind and spirit. Whether it is a day or a week of adventuring in the forests of Appalachia with her dog, Pokey Charles, a paddle down a bayou, swamp or a river in a canoe, or a geological study on the flanks of a volcano somewhere in the world, Emily is a true nature-lover and is most at home learning, teaching and living in and about the natural world.



As a graduate of Brevard College’s Wilderness Leadership and Experiential Education (WLEE) program, Emily gained experience facilitating group development, teaching various subjects, and leading groups through their progression of learning and growth. Courses such as Risk Management and Legal Liability in Outdoor Pursuits, Ethics in Outdoor Leadership and Outdoor Program Administration were integral components of the vigorous WLEE degree requirements. Refinement came through valuable experiences such as a semester long WLEE 101 Teacher Assistantship, two semesters of Practicum in Brevard Middle School's After School Program, planning and participating in a 21- Day Immersion Expedition, co-leading Leave No Trace Trainer Courses and as an Intern for Brevard College's Voice of the Rivers Expedition in 2011. 



Along with various types of training and skills, Emily is a Certified Trainer for Leave No Trace Outdoor Skills and Ethics, a Wilderness First Responder, and has received ACA Swiftwater Rescue Level 4 training.

Emily enjoys flowers and medicinal and edible plant cultivation and identification; also, learning, working, practicing skills and teaching. She is employed by the Transylvania County School System at Pisgah Forest Elementary.

Since 2003, under the guidance of Sifu Paolillo at the Tao Institute in Asheville, Emily has been studying energy sensitivity training through the practices of Chen style tai chi, qi gong, praying mantis kung fu, bagua zhang, and meditation.

Kayah has lived most of her life in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Growing up in the mountains of Virginia, most her free time was spent exploring the Shenandoah National Park with cousins and grandparents. By the time she was 15, she had hiked nearly every trail mile of the park. Summers were spent swimming below waterfalls, and collecting buckets of wild berries to make jams and cobblers with. Her favorite place was her cousin's rustic 'getaway cabin'. When there, Kayah ate dinner by candlelight, hauled water from a spring, and bathed in the pond. The intimacy with nature that Kayah felt here, inspired a way of living that she still feels to this day.

In 1997 Kayah and her partner attempted to hike the Appalachian Trail (AT), while she was pregnant. After 980 miles, they got off the trail to prepare for their first child. Since then, Kayah has enjoyed hiking the AT and other long trails with her two kids, friends, the girl scouts, boy scouts, wounded veterans, and many others. She has lived in Asheville for twelve years. Kayah loves sharing the joy of nature with others, especially kids.

For the past three years, Kayah has been the kids program coordinator of the Firefly Gathering. She is a Wilderness First Responder. Last year Kayah joined True Nature Camp, and has been loving every minute of it.