FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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SPRING 2006 SCHOOLS OUTREACH UPDATE By Carol Hankermeyer Despite the perverseness of bad weather the first half of 2006, Schools Outreach has had a banner year so far, managing to lead a record 263 children on field trips during the spring season. A fungus-finding hike with San Carlos Middle School in January accounted for 80 of them! Also, a first this year was FoE-sponsored busing of Taft School at-risk children participating in an after-school program supported by Hidden Villa. School buses brought 84 Taft students to Edgewood on two separate field trips in March. They were a huge success thanks to our outstanding Outreach docents and a highly skilled and enthusiastic Taft/Hidden Villa program leader. You know you’ve scored when you ask a student “What is your favorite place to visit?” and he responds, “This place, right here!—I wish I could live here.” Besides these school trips, we hosted a 4H project from Hacienda School and five girl scout troops. Another boost to the Outreach Program was the second docent training workshop given by Diane West-Bourke on March 17 to help docents learn how to engage children and relate nature to their own lives. Diane demonstrated hands-on activities and showed how to use nature as you find it to illustrate the concepts of ecology and make it fun. We were pleased to have a turnout of 16 participants for this 4-hour enrichment. I am elated to report that we now boast an active Outreach docent list of 17. With this expanded number, we plan to advertise our program and attract more local schools, orchestrating our field trips to support in-class curriculum and state standards as much as possible. Finally, the docent guide committee, consisting of Toni Corelli, Herb Fischgrund, Frances Morse and myself, is proud to present the first edition of the Docent Guide for Leading Children’s Groups at Edgewood Natural Preserve. Thanks to a Volunteer Grant sponsored by the Parks Foundation, we are offering it free to every active Outreach docent and to the FoE Executive Committee. We hope this manual and the new visual aids available in the locker room will be a useful resource for field trip leaders, who have formerly relied solely on their own resources and visual materials. Perhaps it will inspire YOU to consider becoming an Outreach docent! If you’d like to get involved, contact outreach@friendsofedgewood.org. Don’t forget, too, that the Outreach Coordinator position will be open; I am seeking a replacement as I phase out in 2007 after 10 years of serving as the Coordinator of children’s field trip programs. Please let me know if you are interested.
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