Volume 2 ISSUE
45
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF THE PARK AND RECREATION
December 20 2013
DEPARTMENT
FridayLetter THE
this issue In The News:
Park News P.1 Enterprise Services P.2
Nature Preserves & Natural Resources
Community & Recreation Center Services P.4
Park and Recreation— Park News Citizen Involvement Continues in Park and Recreation Citizen Schools Leadership Apprenticeship Busy with Winter Projects: While visitation to the nature preserves slows in the winter, the nature preserve operations staff kicks into high gear to work on various projects that don’t get attention during the hectic summer season. Staff have been focusing on cleaning and making repairs to signs, decks, picnic areas and other facilities.
Staff from Latta Plantation Nature Center and McDowell Nature Center have been working with the Citizen Schools organization at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School to offer an outdoor leadership apprenticeship this semester. Citizen Schools is an organization that “partners with public middle schools in low-income communities to provide an expanded learning day, rich with opportunities.” Every week approximately nineteen 6th and 7th grade students participate in the apprenticeship taught by nature center staff where they learn the skills and the ethics needed to be leaders in the outdoors. Students in the apprenticeship put their leadership skills to the test with an overnight campout on Copperhead Island where they were responsible for setting up their tents, cooking their meals, and building a campfire to stay warm. The apprenticeship culminated with a presentation organized by the students at Citizen Schools’ “WOW!” event on December 17th.