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Where Nature Is the Teacher “It feels like corn on the cob!” So said a 10 year-old girl who had the chance to touch a snake while visiting the interpretive center at Columbia Bottom Conservation Area as part of the Urban Populations Outreach Project (UPOP) of the Green Center. This young girl was one of the children who visited Columbia Bottom as part of the UPOP Summer Experience, a program designed to let children from highly-urban communities experience nature up-close-and-personal. These nature experiences take place at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, at state parks, at the Green Center in University City, and in their own neighborhoods. UPOP began three years ago as a one-and-a-half day experience for youth. It has grown into a four-day camp, made possible by a collaboration between the Green Center, Open Space Council, Missouri Parks Association, MEMCO Barge Line, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Union Avenue Christian Church, and EarthLinks, a program funded by St. Louis Trio Foundation. This summer, close to 200 youngsters from six area agencies — Castlepoint Family Support Center, the downtown YMCA, Wesley House, Walbridge Elementary School, Dignity House and Pagdale Family Support Center — took part in UPOP. They got to observe barges sliding through Melvin Price Locks and Dam near Riverlands Environmental Demonstration Area; see pelicans eating lunch; set up an environmental stewardship project in their own neighborhoods; and maybe overcome a fear of snakes. more |
OUR OUTREACH REACHING OUT STORIES LINKS
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