First Aid Kit

Every gamer knows: nobody heads into a hard quest with an empty inventory. In the Pathfinder Club — the Adventist Church's program for boys and girls ages 10 to 15 —, the first aid kit is exactly that: the inventory the club equips before every adventure. A scraped knee on the trail, a splinter in a finger, a blister on the heel in the middle of camporee… when something goes off script, that box is what steps in. And there's a detail a lot of people forget: an expired item is an item that doesn't exist.

🚑Why does every club need a first aid kit?

Camping is synonymous with nature, campfires, and friendship — but also with the unexpected. ARM South America, the Adventist Church's risk management office, pointed out in 2023 some of the most common risks in this type of activity: drownings, falls, sprains, fractures, burns, and traffic accidents. No club wants any of that to happen. Every club needs to be ready in case it does.

That's why ARM lists the first aid kit among the basic precautions for any camp, alongside a standby team, a car available for transport, and knowing the location of the nearest hospital. It's like the school's fire extinguisher: you hope you never need it, but it has to be there, fully stocked and within reach.

The kit, of course, is only half the equation. The other half is people trained to use it — and that's where first aid techniques for Pathfinders come in, a topic that deserves an article of its own.

🧰What can't be missing from the kit? The complete list

There's no single mandatory list that applies to every club — each board adapts the kit to the size of the group and the type of activity. But the lists clubs actually use converge on the same core, divided here into four functions that are easy to remember: clean, protect, tools, and record.

Think of them as inventory slots: each function has its own items, and a well-balanced kit fills all four.

Notice that medication didn't show up in the table? That wasn't an oversight — medication has its own rules, and we'll get there in a section devoted entirely to that.

The core of a Pathfinder club's first aid kit, organized by function. Quantities grow with the size of the group.

⚖️What's the golden rule of the kit?

Here's the principle instructors keep repeating: less is more. A giant box full of items nobody knows how to use is basically decoration. In an emergency, whoever opens the kit needs to find what they're looking for in seconds — not dig through twenty unfamiliar packages while a friend waits.

The second part of the rule: expiration dates always current. Expired saline, a bandage with a broken seal, a liquid that's been open for weeks — in the game, that would be a broken item hogging a slot. An expired item is an item that doesn't exist; worse, it's an item that gets in the way, because it gives a false sense of security.

And the third: the kit provides primary care. It exists to reduce the problem until professional help arrives — not to replace a doctor, a health clinic, or emergency medical services. If in doubt about how serious it is, the guidance is always the same: call emergency services (in Brazil, 192 for SAMU).

Less is more! It's more important to have a few items and know how to properly use all of them than to have a lot and end up lost in an urgent or emergency situation.Cantinho da Unidade, blog for Pathfinder leaders

💊Can the club's kit include medication?

This is the most delicate question — and the short answer is: not on your own. Pathfinders are between 10 and 15 years old, meaning they're minors. Giving medication to a minor without approval from whoever is responsible for them is a health risk and a legal risk at the same time.

The practice clubs follow is straightforward: medication only comes into play with written authorization from parents or guardians, ideally recorded on the health form parents fill out at enrollment — including allergies, special conditions, and any medication taken regularly. If a Pathfinder uses their own medication, it must be labeled, come with instructions, and stay in the custody of a designated adult.

Each club follows the guidance of its Association (the regional headquarters that administers the clubs in the area), and many have volunteer health professionals on the team. What never changes: no one self-medicates at the club, and no leader "prescribes" anything. High fever, allergic reaction, pain that won't go away? Call emergency services (192 in Brazil), and parents or guardians are notified immediately.

🏕️How do you put together the kit for camp and camporee?

Camporee — the big camp that brings together dozens or hundreds of clubs — and weekend outings call for a bit more logistics. A common setup is to have two levels: the club's full box, which stays in the camp's central area, and a compact backpack per unit (the small group of 6 to 8 Pathfinders) for trails and activities away from base.

Before heading out, the check-up ritual is worth it: verify expiration dates item by item, restock whatever was used in the last activity, and make sure every leader knows where the kit is and who's responsible for it. It goes in the bag with the same priority as the tent — and, if the destination is a camporee, that care is part of camporee preparation from day one.

It's no accident that the Safe Camping honor includes a requirement tailor-made for this: make a list of the items in a first aid kit and check the club's own kit, recommending whatever's missing. In other words: auditing the club's box can literally turn into a patch.

🩹Which honor teaches how to use the kit?

In Pathfinder vocabulary, an honor is a mini-course with requirements that ends in a patch sewn onto the sash — find out how honors work. And first aid is such a serious subject that the South American Division's Honors Manual (SAD, the church's headquarters for South America) covers it in three levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced.

The basic level already covers a whole arsenal of situations: shock, artificial respiration, first- to third-degree burns, fire prevention, and safety in rivers, seas, and pools. At the advanced level, the Pathfinder studies the ethical and legal aspects of giving aid and also has to teach the basic and intermediate honors to a group of Pathfinders — a sign the club doesn't take it lightly when it comes to saving lives.

And it's not just talk: in 2017, for example, 47 Pathfinders and leaders from Santarém (PA) went through training in first aid, basic rescue, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation with military firefighters. The goal, in the organizers' words, is a single one: saving lives.

✅Final checklist: is your kit ready?

Wrap up the article with the five-point test. If your club answers "yes" to all of them, the kit is at ready for the mission level:

1. Does it have items from all four functions (clean, protect, tools, record)? 2. Is everything within its expiration date and with intact packaging? 3. Does every leader know where the kit is kept and who's responsible for it? 4. Are the health forms up to date, with allergies and signed authorizations? 5. Has someone in the group actually trained with the items inside it?

If a "no" popped up somewhere, great: now you know exactly which inventory slot needs attention before the next adventure.