I was once asked why it is important to encourage children to experience the joys of Nature. That is a loaded question to me! I serve as the Natural History Section Manager for the Indiana State Museum as well as serving as the Site Manager for the State Historic Site dedicated to Gene Stratton-Porter, one of Indiana’s first environmentalists.
Gene would be an ideal example of how important it is to expose children to nature and how it had a life-long impact, not only for her, but for the lives of those she touched through her books and movies.
Gene was the 12th child born to Mark and Mary Stratton in a rural area in Wabash County, Indiana. Since her father was a minister as well as a farmer, she spent a great deal of time outdoors with him. A number of stories arose from her youth stemming from her father’s desire to kill “pest” animals such as red-tailed hawks, great horned owls and woodpeckers. Many people of her time (late 1800s) incorrectly believed that these animals killed their livestock and ate their crops. Gene saw the real benefit of these animals and after numerous protests, her father gave her “ownership” of all the natural things on their 80 acre farm. Gene even went so far as to give up her cherry pie so that her father would stop killing the woodpeckers!
As Gene’s love and knowledge of nature grew, she secretly started submitting works of fiction to magazines where nature was deeply woven into the storyline. The works, complimented with her nature photography, were so well received she decided to write a book. Her first was published in 1903 and was entitled “A Song of the Cardinal.” The success of that book as well as many others in the coming years eclipsed her husband’s very successful ventures in banking, pharmacy, farming and oil and gas interests.
Gene’s success, driven by her early experiences in nature, also afforded her the ability to buy the 120 acre property in Rome City, which she called “Wildflower Woods,” start one of America’s first female-owned movie production companies, and take care of her extended family and friends – many times by building houses for them as gifts.
In addition to her financial independence, she was able to share the gift of nature through her novels, nature studies and movies. As you might imagine, people of that time were moving away from farms and rural lifestyles into towns and metropolitan areas. Her works enabled them to travel into nature from the comfort of their living rooms into the wilds of swamps, forests and lakes.
We face a similar dilemma today with technology. Children have lost their connection to nature, and the volunteers and staff at the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site, in partnership with the Dekko Foundation, hope to do much as Gene did – reconnect children of all ages with nature and all it has to offer. Hopefully, it will inspire those who visit to incorporate nature into their lives through creative works of fiction, photography, and painting or through scientific endeavors such as ornithology, botany, biology or any of a number of other natural sciences.
There is also a movement in the Natural World called, “No Child Left Inside.” It outlines the importance of outdoor experiences to our children and what we can do to encourage them to explore the great outdoors. If you would like to read more about this movement, visit: childrenandnature.org – there are many wonderful articles about how you can share the outdoors with the youth of today.
What would Gene have become if she had never known the joys of nature and who might you encourage to become the next Gene Stratton-Porter?
Time management…simplified!
/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Sharon SmithBoard. Budgets. Email. Fund development. Staff. Program problems. Program evaluation. Social media. Millions of things distract a nonprofit leader’s attention. Only one thing draws it back in: intentional focus.
Mr. Chet Dekko, our founder, carried with him a set of handwritten note cards held together with a rubber band. One of them stated: “Concentration of effort is the key to human accomplishment.”
Building on Mr. Dekko’s belief, we’ve observed this profound point from some of the most effective leaders across our grantmaking areas: The things their organizations CHOOSE NOT TO do have as much to do with their success as the things they choose TO DO!
Hmmmmm.
May we suggest? Kid Power!
/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Sharon SmithToday, more and more people like to gain information, and be inspired, by watching videos. Telling a nonprofit’s stories via video seems like a no-brainer. But professionally-prepared videos can be uber pricey.
We’ll share our secret…we’re harnessing kid power!
Many teens have built great video skills, and they need the chance to put their talents to work in a real-world situation. With just a bit of adult message planning and support teens can tell a great story.
We used a teen intern (Ms. Lauren Butler) and an elementary-aged narrator (Miss Emma Shuman) to send this important message about the kind of grants we want to make. Our cost? A teen intern salary and a teeny weeny paycheck for our narrator.
What do you think?
The joy of socks!
/3 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Sharon SmithParenting. Is there a harder job anywhere on the planet?
No pay. The hours stink. And those instructions? They work with every kid but yours!
Often the parenting years are also the “getting started out in life years” when money and time are especially tight. That’s why, eight years ago, we started something called, ‘before5.”
before5 is really just two incredible women (Diane Shoppell and Jonell Malcolm) with a passion for helping other parents. These two meet parents wherever they are, and help them to understand how to nurture their children simply by going about their daily lives. The before5 team explains the complicated subject of child development using simple props like a laundry basket full of socks!
Did you know that the core of a child’s personality (especially social and spiritual aspects) are formed by the time a child is five years old? The name before5 refers to the importance of these years when so much growth and development takes place.
This link fast-forwards from early childhood to adolescence and makes the point that nurturing a child in the early years is critical to a well-adjusted and happy teen (and adult).
You might also want to visit our before5 website. If your own children are beyond that age, why not refer a younger parent?
Get outdoors with your child–please!
/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Sharon SmithI was once asked why it is important to encourage children to experience the joys of Nature. That is a loaded question to me! I serve as the Natural History Section Manager for the Indiana State Museum as well as serving as the Site Manager for the State Historic Site dedicated to Gene Stratton-Porter, one of Indiana’s first environmentalists.
Gene would be an ideal example of how important it is to expose children to nature and how it had a life-long impact, not only for her, but for the lives of those she touched through her books and movies.
Gene was the 12th child born to Mark and Mary Stratton in a rural area in Wabash County, Indiana. Since her father was a minister as well as a farmer, she spent a great deal of time outdoors with him. A number of stories arose from her youth stemming from her father’s desire to kill “pest” animals such as red-tailed hawks, great horned owls and woodpeckers. Many people of her time (late 1800s) incorrectly believed that these animals killed their livestock and ate their crops. Gene saw the real benefit of these animals and after numerous protests, her father gave her “ownership” of all the natural things on their 80 acre farm. Gene even went so far as to give up her cherry pie so that her father would stop killing the woodpeckers!
As Gene’s love and knowledge of nature grew, she secretly started submitting works of fiction to magazines where nature was deeply woven into the storyline. The works, complimented with her nature photography, were so well received she decided to write a book. Her first was published in 1903 and was entitled “A Song of the Cardinal.” The success of that book as well as many others in the coming years eclipsed her husband’s very successful ventures in banking, pharmacy, farming and oil and gas interests.
Gene’s success, driven by her early experiences in nature, also afforded her the ability to buy the 120 acre property in Rome City, which she called “Wildflower Woods,” start one of America’s first female-owned movie production companies, and take care of her extended family and friends – many times by building houses for them as gifts.
In addition to her financial independence, she was able to share the gift of nature through her novels, nature studies and movies. As you might imagine, people of that time were moving away from farms and rural lifestyles into towns and metropolitan areas. Her works enabled them to travel into nature from the comfort of their living rooms into the wilds of swamps, forests and lakes.
We face a similar dilemma today with technology. Children have lost their connection to nature, and the volunteers and staff at the Gene Stratton-Porter State Historic Site, in partnership with the Dekko Foundation, hope to do much as Gene did – reconnect children of all ages with nature and all it has to offer. Hopefully, it will inspire those who visit to incorporate nature into their lives through creative works of fiction, photography, and painting or through scientific endeavors such as ornithology, botany, biology or any of a number of other natural sciences.
There is also a movement in the Natural World called, “No Child Left Inside.” It outlines the importance of outdoor experiences to our children and what we can do to encourage them to explore the great outdoors. If you would like to read more about this movement, visit: childrenandnature.org – there are many wonderful articles about how you can share the outdoors with the youth of today.
What would Gene have become if she had never known the joys of nature and who might you encourage to become the next Gene Stratton-Porter?
“We were blessed with good parents”
/2 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Sharon SmithWorking with her brother and sister, our guest blogger Deborah McDonald helped to start Operation Timothy, an after school tutoring program designed to keep students from falling behind in school and dropping out. Operation Timothy is a ministry of David’s Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Tanner, Alabama.
I was born and raised in a small rural community in Alabama. I was raised in a large family by two loving parents. Having parents like mine made the difference in our lives. We didn’t have a lot of material things, but we had two people that knew what we needed to grow and survive in this world. They stressed education. If you are educated you can go places and become a productive citizen rather than a burden to your community and society, they would say. They were loving and nurturing, but they were also tough. My parents loved life, God and they loved to see us do well in school. They provided the guidance, time and attention that we needed at the stages in our lives that we needed it.
Not all kids have the parents that my sisters and brothers and I had, this is why we do what we do. In the community that we live in there are many children in single parent homes, kids in homes where education is not a priority, they don’t get enough time and attention at home, therefore they don’t do well at school. A lot of people will say this is because they are low income as well, but we were low income and we succeeded. Income alone is not the problem. Children that grow up in families where there is not enough nurturing, emphasis on education and low income are “at risk” of dropping out of school and becoming a burden to society.
My older brother and sister saw many children in our community from these homes, the high school dropout rate was very high and we decided that we needed to do something. We were blessed with good parents so we wanted to give back to the community. We started an after school program that we named “Operation Timothy.” We offer tutoring, mentoring and one on one attention to children that are “at risk” in our community. We believe that if we can make a difference in one of these kids lives it will be worth it. “Operation Timothy” has been in operation for six years and has been very successful. The community has embraced us and we are giving these kids what they need to succeed.