By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Survivalist skills are the special this weekend at Woodland Mall. Classes will teach how to start a fire, set a snare, suture a wound, and reload a gun.
“All the classes are basic survival classes,” said Nick Getzinger, state executive officer to the president of the Ohio Oath Keepers, which is holding a multi-state rally at the mall in Bowling Green on Saturday and Sunday. “If there’s a major disaster, these classes teach people to survive.”
It’s not just natural disasters the Oath Keepers want people to prepare for. The group also trains for manmade, governmental or financial crises.
“If someone attacks us, we want to make sure people can survive it,” Getzinger, of the Weston area, said earlier this year when announcing the rally.
Some of the classes will also be geared toward “preppers,” or “homesteaders,” and will teach skills like food preservation and canning.
The classes will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The public is invited to attend. Getzinger said overnight camping will be allowed in the mall parking lot for Oath Keeper members. However, a city official said Monday evening that no zoning permit has been granted for the camping.
Getzinger said Monday he is unsure how many members of the organization might attend, though he is estimating between 100 and 200.
Originally, the Oath Keepers had hoped that members with permits would be able to carry concealed weapons in the mall. However, Getzinger said the mall’s ban will stay in effect during the rally.
“We chucked that out the window,” he said. “Our members are all survivalists. They all carry. They are supporters of the Second Amendment.” But the members will have to obey the mall rules, Getzinger said. Classes like the marksmanship training will be held offsite.
Getzinger said the Oath Keepers is not a radical organization. The members believe in the U.S. Constitution and in being prepared in case of crises. The group is made up of current and former military, police, fire and EMS personnel, who took an oath to serve the country.
“That pledge did not have an expiration date,” he said.
“This is the greatest country on the planet,” he said earlier this year. “We want to preserve that. We want to make sure that doesn’t get taken away from us.”
Getzinger, whose wife is a part-owner of the new Oath Keepers Outpost in Woodland Mall, said the organization is focused on helping people.
“People are not prepared,” he said. “According to FEMA, the average person doesn’t have more than three days of food in their refrigerator. We provide the training available to anyone.”
Some of the training offered during the rally includes:
- Training to build an AR15 lower receiver in the machine shop attached to the mall.
- Training to construct a home portable hydroponics garden.
- Concealed carry weapon classes daily.
- Reloading for beginners.
- Muzzle loading for beginners.
- Building your own bow and arrows.
- Tactical training and marksmanship at an offsite range.
- Bug out bag training to properly build an indefinite bug out bag and how to build and stash food, ammo and survival supplies in a tactical cache.
- Survivalist training with classes on 10 different ways for water purification, 12 different ways to start a fire, building hasty shelter using common items, setting snares, edible plants and trees etc.
- Self defense training including fending off an attacker, reaction to firearm, using a firearm, using mace or stun guns etc.
- Medical training including suturing, CPR, basic first aid, how to set up an IV, treating fractures, chest wounds, and disinfection.
- Natural medical treatment on treating various illnesses using natural resources where medicine may not be available.
- Building supplemental power supplies such as wind and solar.
- Chaplains Corner: Biblical discussion regarding the times, communities, goals.
- How to make fuel using repurposed materials, making hydrogen fuel cells, wood combustion gasses.
Bowling Green Police will be on hand for security, Getzinger said. However, Police Chief Tony Hetrick said Monday evening that the police had not been given any details about assistance sought at the rally.
There will also be events for children, including crafts, survival training, course on how to react to becoming lost, how to make help signals, edible plants and trees.
A 3K benefit run is also planned to raise funds for the legal fund to support “fellow Patriots in Oregon” who are incarcerated.
The entrance fee to the summit is $15 per person for the weekend, or $10 per person per day.
Woodland Mall Manager Michelle Beaverson said the final details for the rally are still being ironed out. “I should know more by Wednesday.” She is hoping the rally will bring business to other stores in the mall over the weekend.
