ERC Article: Connecting PACK Kids with Nature
Connecting to Nature – and Each Other - During PACK
by Lisa Huttinger, Education Director, ERC
(Lisa also is the esteemed volunteer coach for our Special Olympics Nordic team … she’s the coolest!!)
For three Wednesdays in June, I had the pleasure of working with a group of 18 children ages 7-12 through Sun Valley Adaptive Sport’s Peak Adventure Camp for Kids (PACK). I look forward to this program each year, as I love to see the ways in which the ERC’s mission can mesh so well with a group working towards what appear to be a very different set of goals.
PACK brings together a group of children with developmental disabilities – primary among these is autism – to “provide therapeutic intervention to improve the developmental milestones” of the participants. One may wonder, how does the ERC’s goal of connecting people to nature fit within this context? The answer lies in the children’s absolute enthusiasm for exploring the natural world.
We know that children are born explorers. If you have hiked with a child, you know that you often get no further than the trailhead in an hour, and within that time have been shown myriad objects and discoveries, and fielded many questions – some of which you’ve never even considered yourself! But for a child with autism, the striking thing about these adventures is to watch their enthusiasm for their discoveries overwhelm their disability. They run to you, and hold your gaze as they show you the latest track, leaf, rock, or shell that they have discovered. They find the words to describe the things that excite them most. They do not realize that they have just taken part in a therapeutic event.
Each week, I intentionally designed activities that required the campers to interact with each other in a meaningful way. They were asked to share with the group the special traits of an animal they have just created, describe their favorite bit of evidence of the animals living in Howard Preserve, or carefully guide a partner who was blindfolded in a sensory exploration of a natural feature. But really, these are a part of any program that we do – we always encourage the adults and children in our programs to connect with one another and celebrate this place in which we live. It just turns out that, for this particular group, we can serve a larger purpose in their life as we guide them in their explorations of home.
