FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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SCHOOLS OUTREACH PROGRAM By Carol Hankermeyer During the school year 2004-2005 Schools Outreach hosted field trips for 230 scouts, middle school, elementary school, and homeschool students at Edgewood. Unfortunately, an April storm rained out Castilleja High School’s scheduled botany excursion. Despite this loss, it was an impressive number of participants for our budding program, which has been bolstered by the recent addition of 5 new docents. The total number of 15 should now finally allow us to begin a campaign to promote interpretive walks for local schools. Toni Corelli has been generously donating her Flowering Plants of Edgewood to any school group visiting Edgewood in 2005. Another boost to the program is the project of creating a training manual to aid new volunteers in leading children’s tours. Toni Corelli, Herb Fischgrund, Frances Morse and I are working to produce this guide, which we hope to complete by next year. Toni has also produced laminated interpretive cards and flower pictures as tools for docents to use in their walks. They will be kept in the storage room at Edgewood for the benefit of any docent leading a children’s hike. Meanwhile, Frances Morse has procured a $4000 grant for Friends of Edgewood from the Kirven Foundation, some of it hopefully to be designated for docent training and for busing less advantaged school children to the park. Finally, a kids' docent enrichment hike to share interpretive ideas and strategies is planned for October. We always welcome new docents, and if you are interested in joining us, even if you are not currently a docent, please contact me at outreach01@friendsofedgewood.org. I am also seeking a co-chair to help plan and coordinate the outreach program. Please let me know if you would like to join this worthy program. |
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