Vince Aka "Big Toe"
Assistant Instructor
It is uncertain the origins of Big Toe. He was found in the woods as a small feral child, living off of small game that he caught with his bare hands. After many years of remaining elusive in the deep woods, he was captured, washed, shaved down and taught to speak and act human. He is....Big Toe.
No, seriously-
Born and raised in Michigan, Vince's outdoor skills began when he was a young Cub Scout. He has spent his life in the woods learning survival skills, firecraft, fishing and hunting from his uncle Mike. He was instructed by his grandfather (a 3-war US Army combat veteran) in firearms and outdoor skills. Vince is an accomplished student of the woods, has knowledgeable gunsmithing skills, is a competitive shooter, instructs students at the School of Self Reliance, builds computer systems, and aspires to obtain his bush pilot's license in the future.
Mike
Owner & Founder of School of Self Reliance
Senior Instructor
Mike has made a lifelong study of survival and prepping. From an early age, Mike studied with his grandmother who was a full-blooded Cherokee Native American, learning edible plants and primitive living skills by spending entire summers on Cherokee and Lumbe reservations with his grandmother's tribal family and friends in North Carolina. Mike is a lifelong outdoorsman, enjoying hunting, camping, and fishing all over the United States (including Alaska, the West, the South, and the Midwest) and Canada.
He also learned a great deal of survival and military subjects from his father, a WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War US Army Combat Veteran. His parents, the original preppers and survivalists, also taught Mike hunting, fishing, shooting, fighting, tracking, trapping, and prepping. Proving that wilderness survival is "in his blood", Colonel Daniel Boone, and Squire Boone Jr. the American Pioneers who helped explore and settle Kentucky are the 7th Great-Uncles of Mike.
SOSR Instructors
Sarah
Prepper Class Instructor, Photographer/Vidographer, Video Editing, Webmaster, & Office Manager
A military brat- Sarah began her survival training at a young age on numerous family camping trips in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennesee and in Yosemite National Park in California. She has endured nature disasters every place she has lived, including the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, California drought and wildfires, Michigan blizzards, Ohio & Oklahoma tornadoes, Hurricane Isabel in 2003, and a wildfire that almost consumed KI Sawyer AFB in the U.P. in the late 1980's.
Sarah is a Lifetime Girl Scout Alumni, having earned the Gold & Silver Awards. She was a Camp Counselor for the Girl Scouts for many years, passing on her survival and wilderness knowledge to the next generation of young Scouts.
She learned cooking, quilting, and canning from her grandmother, survival skills and military history from her grandfather, sewing and homemaking from her mother, shooting, hunting, and fishing from her father. She then went on to become CPR/First Responder/EMT certified. Sarah has a degree in Biomedical Science and has worked as a biomedical and pharmaceutical research scientist. She is also ServSafe and Taps Certified in Food Safety.
Sarah became NAUI Open Water, Rescue Diver, and Nitrox SCUBA certified in college and has logged many dives. She was the President of the SCUBA Club at the University of Tennessee for 2 years. She is a lifelong camper, prepper, student of survival skills and has a passion for herbal and natural remedies (homeopathy). Nicknamed "Annie Oakley" as a child, Sarah is an avid competition shooter, having taken All Events Women's Champion Shooter 5 years in a row for Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, and Archery in competition.
She currently is the Prepper Class Instructor, passing on her knowledge of basic homesteading, canning, food & water storage, gardening, and prepping skills. She also is the Class Photographer/Videographer, edits video footage and maintains the YouTube Channel, maintains the website, Facebook Page, Twitter account, Email, and PrepClub Wordpress blog.
While other children were learning to play basketball and baseball, Mike was learning knife fighting, man tracking, and surviving in the woods up to 7 days with only a knife, canteen & cup. Mike is a lifelong Mixed Martial Artist, achieving a Brown belt in Tae Kwon Do, a Blue belt in Aikido, studied Karate, and training in MMA since he was 13 years old. Mike continues to train in martial arts, but chose not to pursue belt colors which mostly competition fighters seek. He prefers to use his martial art training for self defense purposes and to maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. He uses his martial art background to teach basic self defense to his students.
At age 17, Mike began skydiving and he received his USPA A, B, & C Licenses for Skydiving at Skydive Sturgis with Instructor "Fang" (who was a former Army Golden Knight parachutist). Mike also began teaching his friends, family, and local Boy Scout troops basic survival skills in 1990. These were his first "classes" as a survival instructor, passing on primitive woodsman skills to those interested in learning the old ways. He designed a logo (our arrowhead- originally hand drawn) and name (the School of Self Reliance) for his private classes in 1990.
Through his adult life, Mike has attended dozens of private training schools for firearms and tactical training, including Gunsight Training Academy, Corporate Staffing, and Singleton International with courses of study including (but not limited to): basic and advanced handgun, shotgun, and carbine, scout patrolling, vehicle-borne operations, mantracking, close quarters battles (CQB), HVT security, and other training.
In 1992, Mike co-founded Royal Recovery Treasure Salvage, a company specializing in locating and recovering shipwreck treasure. He also became PADI Open Water SCUBA certified diver. He continued to give private survival training while searching for shipwreck treasure in the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
In 1994, Mike was recruited to work for Military Professional Services in Fayetteville, NC, a company specializing in military services and training to civilians law enforcement agencies, and security services for foreign entities. They provided strategic and tactical military assistance to foreign governments and corporations. Through his work with MPS, Mike was priveleged enough to meet, train with, and work with some our countries finest military professionals. Mike has also worked with other PMCs, including Sandline International.
Mike continued to teach private survival classes to adult students, church groups, preppers, youth groups, bushcraft enthusiasts, and gave presentations at corporate functions and museum organizations, as well as continued work with MPS.
In 2005, Mike formally founded a survival business- School of Self Reliance (the name he had originally used since he was 17 years old), using his previously hand-drawn 1990 arrowhead logo (which was re-done by a professional graphic artist specifically for Mike's company that you see now) and began survival instruction not just for civilians, but for law enforcement and military personnel, providing training in wilderness survival, man-tracking, counter tracking, and other tactical training. With the aid of the internet and YouTube, Mike now has expanded his training school to reach a wider audience. Mike continues to be a lifelong student in wilderness survival, busharts, firecraft, hunting, fishing, and prepping.
Mike is a lifelong follower of the survival principals set by John "Lofty" Wiseman and Ron Hood.
Mike with Commander Richard Marcinko
Founder and former Commander of SEAL Team Six
