Teachers of New Jersey: Mark Haug, Wilderness Survival Class at Central Regional High School
Wilderness Survival class is like Boy Scouts and camping. I take what I use with my “Hold On, I’m Coming” disaster prep and stuff like that, and all the experience I’ve had with disaster relief, and I apply it to these kids. Once I introduce it to them, they become more passionate about it because most kids today don’t get outside of their own yards anymore. They are alone and they don’t get around and they don’t see what’s right in their yard. I teach them kayaking and hiking, and we often use Double Trouble State Park, near the school.
I started “Hold On, I’m Coming” when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. I was a lifeguard at the time, and I and a bunch of guys realized that we’ve got jet skis, and we’ve got kayaks and we’ve got EMTs, and we have all of this certification. So, I said, let’s go down and help these people. But the state wouldn’t let us use their equipment. I understood that aspect of it, but it planted this idea of how we were going to do this.
So, during the Covid pandemic, I was sitting around, and when I’m idle, my mind goes and I started thinking of this idea: When there’s a disaster, maybe I could go help. I could bring them the things that they need on a small personal scale. I try to be the gap. When the fire trucks and the ambulances and the rescue squads pull away, and before the big organizations like the Red Cross and the Salvation Army and FEMA arrive, that’s where I come in.
When there is a disaster that I can get to in NJ, I go there as fast as possible. My trailer is loaded. It’s full to capacity right now. All I do is I pick up anything that’s perishable, and I fill up water jugs, and within two hours after something happens, I can be on the road.
My first trip was in North Jersey. There was a flood just outside of Sayreville. I went up there with my son and we fed about 30 or 40 people until the Red Cross showed up. Then I went to the tornado in Mullica, South Jersey, and I helped a few people out there. One time I was at a flood out in Kentucky, and then I was in Fort Myers for the hurricane. That was my biggest one yet, I fed 1300 people.
The school and the parents are very supportive of what I do. They give me gift cards and donations to help my cause all the time. So, the school is a big part of it, and that means a lot to me. They really support it in great, great amounts, which is beautiful.
Interview by Gregory Andrus
Portraits of the Jersey Shore
