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April 2016 Lindsay Wildlife Experience
Serving the Lafayette Community It’s Almost Fair Season!
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I learn.” Benjamin Franklin might have been referring to the philosophy of the Lindsay Wildlife Experience when he turned this wise phrase more than 200 years ago. The Lindsay Wildlife Experience (formerly the Lindsay Wildlife Museum) and its Wildlife Rehabilitation Hospital have always been more than the dictionary definition of its former ‘museum’ name implied – a building in which objects of interest are stored or exhibited. Lindsay’s live animals, its vibrant, Wild Night fun. hands-on displays and programs, and its real hospital care presentations are so much more than museum material, and thus, the Museum last year revealed its new, more apropos name. Officially founded in 1955 by Alexander Lindsay, a local businessman who had studied ornithology and taught neighborhood children about nature, the Lindsay has experienced a number of name changes over the years. Originally housed in an elementary school, the Lindsay Junior Museum moved in 1965 to a water pump house in Larkey Park where it housed non-releasable native wildlife and natural history objects. In 1987, the ‘Junior’ was dropped in order to reflect its appeal to all age groups, and in 1996, the word ‘Wildlife’ was added. Lindsay is the living embodiment of Franklin’s “Involve me and I learn” tenet. More than 100,000 visitors each year, including 40,000 school children, experience Lindsay with hands-on, on-site, and in-school programs such as the Petting Circle where one can learn about and touch a rabbit, guinea pig, or hamster. The Raptors! exhibit allows for a true bird’s eye view of flight, as participants soar over a simulated local landscape a la Disney’s Soarin’ Over California. “Educating children about wildlife and connecting them with charismatic animal ambassadors such as great horned owls, golden eagles, and king snakes is the best way I know to instill a passion for wildlife conservation,” says Lindsay’s executive director Cheryl McCormick. “If children develop deep connections to wildlife while they’re very young – they’ll still care when they become consumers, voters, and policy makers. Lindsay plants seeds of inspiration and wonder that, over time, grow into mighty trees of actions and ideas. When I see a group of schoolchildren enrapt by one of our animal ambassadors, I can’t help but wonder, ‘Is this the next E.O. Wilson, Jane Goodall, Jacques Cousteau, or Sylvia Earle?’ McCormick is an ecologist whose worry
It’s almost Fair season, and that means that young 4-H’ers are readying their varied animals for showing. The Contra Costa County Fair runs June 1 – June 5, with horse competitions taking place the weekend of May 21. We’ve queried three local girls on what it’s like to raise and show their animals. Caitlynn Turner is a 12-yearold Pleasant Hill Middle School student who started 4-H activities at age six. She has raised swine, chickens, and rabbits, and has ridden and shown horses. “I have been riding horses since I was three-years-old at my Grandpa’s ranch,” says Turner. “And finally I got my first rabbit after my older sister had one for a couple of years. I have just started the poultry project this year, even though I don’t have a chicken.” Dreya and Cody Caitlynn loves spending time with animals and aspires to become a large animal vet.
By Fran Miller
By Fran Miller
The wildlife hospital is the backbone of Lindsay’s existence.
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ECRWSS
Las Trampas Art Exhibit
By Kathy Merchant
See 4-H continued on page 9
There is an artist in all of us, they say. Well, 15 artists from Lafayette’s Las Trampas validated this belief in the 25 art pieces currently on display at the Community Hall Art Gallery at the Lafayette Library and Learning Center. What makes this exhibit exceptional is that Las Trampas Patty with her piece in the exhibition. serves individuals with moderate to profound developmental disabilities, including Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, and autism. At a packed Volume X - Number 4 3000F Danville Blvd #117 champagne reception in March, coAlamo, CA 94507 hosted by Lafayette’s Public Art Telephone (925) 405-6397 Committee, guests viewed the colorful, Fax (925) 406-0547 primarily abstract paintings created by individuals with a range of intellectual editor@yourmonthlypaper.com and physical challenges…from limited Alisa Corstorphine ~ Publisher opinions expressed herein belong to the digital dexterity, restricted vision, The writers, and do not necessarily reflect that of Lamarginally verbal, and non-ambulatory. fayette Today. Lafayette Today is not responsible the content of any of the advertising herein, But the lively hues, movement, and for nor does publication imply endorsement.
See Art continued on page 20