Our Times, August 15, 1999
"Walk on the wild side", by Nedra Lindsey

Santa Monica organization puts children in touch with nature on wilderness walks

A group of children looked skeptically at the dried flowers placed in their wet hands. Their walk had taken them past Sycamores, a beehive, gopher holes and running creeks. A plastic bag of dried flowers just before lunch seemed a puzzling offering after the hour-and-a-half hike.

"Rub them together", encouraged Nancy Berk, their docent trough Malibu Solstice Canyon. "Keep rubbing until it gets soapy."

To their delight and surprise the mountain lilac had given them one of the most memorable moments of the field trip.

"I didn't know that soap could come from a plant," 8-year old Giovanni Garcia said. "My soap only looks like that after it you rub it. It's so great to know that plants and animals can help us like that."

That light bulb of understanding is why the Santa Monica based Children's Nature Institute brings youths to nature reserves like Malibu Creek, Topanga Canyon and Will Rogers State Park. The institute started 14 years ago when Harriet Bennish, a mother who had taken her children on nature hikes, saw a need to teach more children respect for park lands and wildlife.

The program based its educational component on a hand-on early science curriculum that would bring children from babies to 8-year-olds in touch with nature. Each year more than 4,000 families, teachers, students and children are taken on hikes by the institute's 300-plus docents.

"The earth is here for everyone," institute director Judy Burns said. "Learning about the outdoors when children are young has the greatest impact on their lives. It teaches them respect for other and the earth."

Perhaps the program that best expresses that idea is the institute's Outreach Program, which serves children from homeless shelters, schools where more than half of the student body are on the lunch program and kids with special needs.

"Some of them have never been out of the inner city," Berk said. "A lot of the children living in concrete atmospheres need to know that there are places with vistas and trees. I'd hate them to think that was all there was in life. This makes them feel connected."

Since its beginning in 1992, the outreach walks have steadily increased in popularity and in recognition, becoming the institute's most attractive program. In December, the institute was awarded a $50,000 grant from the Boeing Community Fund to create a mobile unit to go into inner city schools to teach about science and nature, Burns said. For the children who attended this walk, it was an experience of a lifetime. For Leticia Ganeros, 7, it was one she hopes never to forget.

"It's so beautiful here," Leticia said. She looked at the unripe walnut she planned on bringing home. "It's going to help me remember the trip, the trees, animals and the water."

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