Lisa Alexander: Turning kids green
The Audubon Naturalist Society’s Lisa Alexander started GreenKids to give Montgomery County students an appreciation for the natural world and their responsibility to protect it.
Kids used to have more time to wander through the woods and experience their environment, Alexander says. Now many overscheduled offspring rarely get that kind of exposure.
GreenKids started four years ago, and 13 percent of the county’s public schools are involved in hands-on activities geared to grade levels and led by Audubon naturalists. This year, GreenKids is working to start a pilot program in Virginia.
Alexander oversees all of the Audubon Naturalist Society’s education programs, ranging from a nature preschool to adult nature travel. But her heart is out in the woods with the kids. She sent 250 Westland Middle School students into a stream to remove invasive plants and check stream health. “You get to put on your boots and go into the stream and look for critters,” she says. For her, it doesn’t get better than that.
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