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Naperville Park District combats 'nature deficit disorder'

Parents who believe their children's playtime consists of too much television and video games have a new ally in their cause.

Sarah Wilkins, Naperville Park District's nature program coordinator, has a mission to combat “nature deficit disorder.” She'll enlist bugs, slimy creatures, photography, gardening, wetland ecology and anything else she can think of to entice young people and their parents to visit the great outdoors.

“Today, kids get less and less exposure to the outdoor environment, the natural world. This program allows children to freely explore the natural world in a way that helps foster creativity and imagination,” she said. “We focus on nature exploration and nature discovery, making connections in the natural world to our own everyday life.”

Hired on a part-time basis in January, Wilkins has been putting together camps and programs with names like Green Thumbs (for 4- to 6-year-olds), Gardening 101 to let middle-schoolers plant and tend their own garden plots, Grossology for youngsters who like all things icky, and nature photography and sketching for the artistic types.

Elementary kids will be able to explore wetlands; middle-schoolers can study stream ecology; and families can watch for night owls.

The decision to hire Wilkins came with the opening of the Seager Park Interpretive Center last October, said Sandie Gilmer, Wilkins' supervisor and the park district's program manager for early childhood.

“We've had them (nature programs) here and there, but no one really focusing on them. She's worked in environmental education and she's from Naperville,” Gilmer said. “We're excited to have her here.”

Nurturing naturalists

The Seager Park Interpretive Center currently houses Knee-High Naturalist programs for the 3- to 6-year-old set and Budding Naturalist for kids in grades two to four. Wilkins foresees the interpretive center and the park district's nature programs becoming a resource for Scout troops, school groups and home-schoolers.

Once the site of a church campground, Seager Park on the city's north side offers trails over varying terrain, along with such amenities as ball fields, a picnic shelter and a fire pit, Wilkins said.

“This is 20 acres of woodlands. It's a great place to come for a walk,” she said.

Studies have shown exposure to nature can have a calming effect on kids with attention deficit disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Wilkins said. It offers similar benefits for adults stressed out with busy lives.

“A 5-minute walk in the park during the afternoon or a busy workweek can actually enhance productivity,” she said.

A hiker, biker, paddler and bird watcher herself, Wilkins knows what Mother Nature has to offer. But she also knows she has an uphill climb to see nature programs attain the status that she would like them to have.

“We want it to have the same sort of status as sports does in the community. That's a challenge because sports are very important to Naperville,” she said. “We want nature programs, nature activities and nature exploration to have the same sort of appeal.”

Naperville native

A Naperville native with deep roots, Wilkins grew up strolling the city's Riverwalk. She credits her mother, Becky Anderson of Anderson's Bookshops, and her father, Chuck Wilkins, with helping inspire her love of the outdoors.

“My parents were adamant about us playing outside as kids. We were hardly ever indoors,” she said. “We took a lot of family vacations where we camped.”

The family's favorite vacation spot was, and is, Sleeping Bear Dunes in northern Michigan, she said. Closer to home, they were frequent visitors to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, where Wilkins served as a camp counselor for several summers and taught some winter sessions as well.

After graduating with a bachelor's degree in environmental science from the University of Vermont, she worked for the state of Vermont a few months collecting lake samples from volunteer monitors.

Wilkins then joined an environmental consulting firm for a few months before moving to Seattle, Wash., to take a position with a nonprofit group doing environmental education and stream restoration.

She returned to the East Coast to become a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. While there, she studied the salt marshes north of Boston and investigated the effects of tropical deforestation in the country of Panama.

Now back in Naperville, Wilkins works part-time for Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, where she attends trade shows dealing with conservation issues and talks with the public.

Education has been a recurring component in her career, Wilkins said. She credits teachers at nature camps she attended as a child with encouraging her to be a steward of her own backyard.

“I sort of want to pay it forward,” she said.

Wilkins said residents can learn more about the nature programs that Naperville Park District has to offer at EcoFest 2012 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, May 12, at the Riverwalk Pavilion, 912 Sindt Court, Naperville. The fest will feature a live bird of prey show by the Northern Illinois Raptor Center. Admission is free.

“It's going to be a fun event. It's a way to spread the word in the community,” Wilkins said.

For information on Naperville Park District nature programs, camps and events, see napervilleparks.org

  “We want (nature education) to have the same sort of status as sports does in the community,” Naperville Park District’s Sarah Wilkins says. “We want nature programs, nature activities and nature exploration to have the same sort of appeal.” Bev Horne/bhorne@dailyherald.com

About this series

About this series

Earth Day everyday. Think globally, act locally. Mobilize the Earth. The modern environmental movement has had a lot of catchphrases since it began with Earth Day on April 22, 1970, and a generation of adults has grown up hearing the messages and taking them to heart. With Earth Day 2012 approaching, this week we're introducing you to six of our neighbors who have found individual ways to protect the planet and share their love of Mother Earth with others. Today, we meet Sarah Wilkins, who in her role with Naperville Park District is working to entice more kids and their parents to explore the outdoors.

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