the
keystone
challenge Preparing today
for a questionable
tomorrow

In 2014 a small group of friends stumbled across a very interesting series of books "299 Days". The books (9-10 in all) were very easy to read (even for those used to looking at pictures). The premise of the series; how one middle-aged man survived a national economic disaster of critical proportions. The series of books follows the person journey of this man (and his family) as they encounter devastating social, government and economic failures during their escape from a metropolitan area to rural America. As we finished the series, all of us decided that though we had faith in the strength of our beautiful country… it would be insane of us to not be better prepared for a variety of disasters: social, economic, environmental, etc. All of us were already members of a worldwide preparatory organization: Z.E.R.T (which used "zombie" as an analogy for any type of disaster). So we networked within our organization, within our state, and spread the word of our “plan”. We began training… hard! Some of us were already medically trained, so we shared our knowledge with other members of our small group. A number of us were proficient with firearms… so they taught those who weren’t comfortable with weapons. One or two of us were old “farm kids”… so were able to teach all the other how to kill and dress out captured food. We were able to pool our skills together to help each other all be better prepared.

Once we found ourselves at a point we needed to advance our proficiency in a variety of subjects, we started hosting paid classes, taught be an amazing network of retired military and active-duty law enforcement, as well as professional medics and survival experts. We expanded our network, pulled more and more people into our “project”… and the next thing we knew, we were brainstorming the first KEYSTONE CHALLENGE competition (2015). We came up with the concept of the KEYSTONE CHALLENGE when we started asking ourselves if we were prepared “enough” to survive a social disaster or weather-related disaster. The best way to test our competence, we felt, was through a friendly competition amongst the various squads that we developed around Pennsylvania. That first year was VERY grass roots… with all our judges volunteering their time and expertise to not only judge us on our abilities, but also teach us where we were weak. The entire concept of the regional squads and the competition was more a “pay-it-forward” philosophy than any attempt to make money. In fact, we had strict rules that squad members were not allowed to charge other squad members for the knowledge they shared within the squad.

The KEYSTONE CHALLENGE concept grew! Next thing we knew, we had over a dozen squads set up all around PA, as well as in neighboring states. People were training within their squads, training between squads, and coming together for our hosted paid classes. From survival clinics, to a variety of firearms related classes, to medical clinics and event a high threat protection course (held early in 2018)… everyone was training, networking, developing valuable friendships and… having a great time! Very quickly we started inviting non-Z.E.R.T. members to attend our training classes, and within no time, we had a number of law enforcement and medical personnel training alongside the rest of us. This was exactly what we’d envisioned… everyone working together with a very similar goal… “to be prepared to help yourself, your family and your neighbors during horrible disasters”.