Ten first grade students smiled proudly as they took turns holding up the trash bag to feel the weight of the trash they’d collectively gathered with gloves from behind the Whittier School in Everett. “We helped the Earth, and now our school looks better!” said another girl. This was one of many joyful moments during a week of outdoor activities with this group at the Everett Summer Adventure Academy.

Families with the financial resources to do so often send their kids to exciting summer nature adventures such as a sleepaway camp deeply connected to nature or a trip to a family or rented cabin in the woods. However, for many families with lower income these outdoor experiences can be out of reach because of transportation, cost and other institutionalized barriers. By participating in the Everett Summer Adventure Academy, which provides low cost summer enrichment for children, Nature Linc hoped to bring a splash of nature fun to kids in their own community.

We offered three weeks of engaging outdoor games, art, and exploration. Each week, we were at a different school, and our staff worked with the same group of K-2nd grade students for the whole week. This enabled us to dive deeply into many themes such as soil, pollinators, and animals, and to adapt to the specific interests of each group. At the Whittier School, kids were excited to pick up trash and wanted to do it every day (“but there’s no more trash,” we replied on the second day!). At the Keverian School, the group’s favorite thing was planting sunflower seeds in little pots to take home- they wanted to sit and watch over them to see if they would start growing. Finally, at the Madeline English School, kids loved making nature journals with materials they collected on our adventure to the beautiful Rivergreen Park, a reclaimed public park and pollinator habitat along the Malden River.

We hope all the students take these positive memories with them through and seek out other opportunities to engage with nature in their communities.