By Mary Beth Almond
C & G Staff Writer

BIRMINGHAM — “Survivor” contestant Erik Reichenbach is happy to be back in Michigan, enjoying the luxuries he often took for granted before he was stranded on the remote Rock Islands of Palau, Micronesia, with 20 strangers.

“This experience made me really love my house. I love my air-conditioning, I love my heating, and I love my refrigerator,” he said.

After braving elements on the popular CBS reality television show “Survivor: Micronesia — Fans vs. Favorites,” everything the 22-year-old has done since returning home has been a breeze — including keeping the attention of hundreds of excited children.

Reichenbach, the nephew of a Birmingham Public Schools Community Education staff member, visited BPS’ Camp Super Summer July 30 to share his experience with the students in Eva Shauntee’s “Survivor! Camp Super Summer Style” class.

Reichenbach, who has watched the show since it first aired, said he wanted to be on “Survivor” because he loved the idea. After turning 21, the age cutoff for the show, he decided to fill out an application online and was asked to submit a three-minute video that showed why he would be good on television.

“Tons of people all over America applied for ‘Survivor,’ so I felt really lucky to be on the show,” he said.

After being chosen for the 16th season of show, Reichenbach left his hometown of Pickney for Micronesia. In order to get to the remote island, he first had to fly from Detroit to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Hawaii, and Hawaii to Guam. From there, he flew another 2 1/2 hours, drove 1 1/2 hours, and arrived at the island after a three-hour boat ride.

The show strands a group of strangers as one or more tribes in a remote location, where they must fend for food, water, fire and shelter, while competing in challenges to earn rewards and immunity from being voted off by the tribe. The last challenger left at the end of the competition wins $1 million and title of “Sole Survivor.”

Reichenbach stands accused of being the “dumbest Survivor ever” for giving his individual immunity to another castaway in an attempt to gain back the trust of the other four players left in the show. Instead, he became the 16th castaway eliminated, receiving fifth place overall.

Explaining his misfortune to the campers, Reichenbach said he was tricked “really bad” by one of the other players, who tried to talk him into giving her immunity.

“I was like, ‘No, I don’t think I’m going to do that,’ and then I started to think it over more. Because I was starving and I was crazy, I gave up the immunity to one of the girls, and then all four of them voted me out and I lost the entire game. I could have gone all the way and kept winning, and winning and winning, and probably won the game, but I messed up huge,” he said.

Reichenbach further captured his wide-eyed audience by sharing tales about the wild animals he encountered and the castaways who had to leave the island due to infections and illnesses.

Because food was very limited on the island, Reichenbach said the contestants ate just about anything they could get their hands on.

“If you didn’t eat for three days, and you just drank water, you would get angry at everything. That’s what makes for good television because everyone is grumpy and angry at everyone else,” he said. “I actually had some chicken feet, which were pretty good, and I also ate fish heads.”

Next, Reichenbach described a part of the game called “The Auction,” where each player was given $500 to bid on food.

“They would auction off a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, which someone bought for $280, because that’s how hungry that person was. I ended up lucking out because I bought a whole plate of nachos for $80. That was a good buy because another girl spent $500 on a giant cake,” he said.

At the end of his visit, Reichenbach advised the children to go home and hug their refrigerator.

“The refrigerator is the greatest invention that you guys have at your house because you can open it up and pull food out of it. That’s awesome, because on this island, you had to go on an adventure to find food. You had to climb a tree, and then climb a cliff, and then fight off some animals for a coconut — which isn’t anything special,” he said.

The children in  the class, which is based around the concepts of team building and confidence, were very excited to meet Reichenbach and get his autograph, Shauntee said.

“He taught them to stay the course and know that they can accomplish whatever they put your mind to,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Beth Almond at malmond@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1060.