A Remarkable Opportunity to Connect with Nature
From Executive Director, Adam Moore
Nature features indelibly in all of my fondest childhood memories. I recall standing upon a Block Island breakwater catching a mackerel with my grandfather. I recall catching toads and turtles and finding garnets on rocky ledges. I recall building forts in the woods, and skipping over streams, and climbing hemlocks, and finding newts beneath rotten logs.
The time afforded by the coronavirus quarantine offers a remarkable opportunity to connect with nature. For youngsters, it offers a chance to form lasting memories that will be positive, from what will otherwise prove a most stressful time.
We have created this newsletter specifically for those charged with the care of children during this period. Our aim is to encourage safe outdoor exploration and learning. We encourage you to go outdoors with those youngsters in your household—and only with those in your immediate household—and try some of these activities. Provided social distancing is observed, walking and hiking are activities allowed under the emergency orders now in place on Martha’s Vineyard.
I believe that it is also our duty, during this extraordinary time, to do the utmost for all children. Our children are making great sacrifices for the greater good of society. They will miss graduations, birthdays, weddings, and celebrations. They will miss school and sports and scouts and the activities they enjoy and hold dear. They have lost jobs and are missing the opportunities to move their young lives forward. It is our duty to help them form bonds with nature that will make this time as valuable as it can possibly be.