Send 5 At-Risk Kids To The Country
Tax deductible
We are raising funds for five at-risk children to attend the Kids To The Country immersive nature sessions this June 2018. Each multi-day session costs $350.
Using direct hands-on experience with nature, Kids To The Country connects at-risk urban children with the Earth, often for the first time. KTC creates a transformative experience where every youngster can develop a deep connection with the natural world while also forming lasting feelings of accomplishment and self-worth and learning to participate in healthy relationships with individuals and the community.
KTC has been bringing inner-city kids to the country since 1986, and has made a real difference in the lives of these children and their families. All year long, kids talk about their dream to go back to Kids To The Country next summer.
Each summer about 150 children ages 6-11 — who are recommended for the KTC program by agencies serving homeless, refugee, and low-income children, mostly from the Nashville area — participate in KTC nature immersion, where they learn firsthand about their relationship with the environment — and other people — as they explore 1750 acres of woodlands, meadows, creeks, and hills near Summertown, Tennessee.
The children are immersed in the natural world — creek-walking, star-gazing, learning to swim in a natural swimming hole, horseback riding, biking and hiking through fields and forests, climbing trees, and getting to know and respect the huge diversity of plant and animal life.
The KTC staff is made up of trained youth counselors, teachers, artists, musicians, water-safety and horse riding instructors, and healthcare professionals. They teach skills such as gardening and plant-based cooking, horse care and riding, conflict resolution, expressive crafts, solar science, and nature arts. Activities can include cooking over a fire, finding a safe spot in the woods, nature hide-and-seek, weeding, harvesting, planting, working with a worm bin and compost pile, and identifying edible and medicinal plants in the woods.
Staff and volunteers are trained to see that each child meets with success on a daily basis. Activities are selected and designed to increase their self-confidence and to help the children build a sense of compassion with themselves, their peers, and the natural world.
During each session, we temporarily transplant these children from their urban, stressful lives to another planet: they become instant, valued parts of a community of teachers and students, with the forest and fields and creeks of nature their classroom, right outside the door. In addition to the health benefits, stress relief, and happiness brought on just by being in nature, the kids learn a lot: They learn to identify plants, both beneficial and harmful. They increase their capacity to observe nature, and they learn to make detailed descriptions of their observations. They experience eating healthy, nutritious meals (some kids have never eaten fresh fruit before). They garden, and learn about recycling and composting.
Kids To The Country also works to improve social and psychological functioning. In addition to widening the children’s world views through direct connection to nature, KTC’s programs teach nonviolent conflict resolution, for increased positive interactions with other individuals and groups.
KTC addresses inequality by teaching self-esteem and empowering children to think of themselves as having power to affect and care for their environment, and influence the world, including on a global level. During each summer Nature School session, we create a strong community of teachers and students from diverse races and classes, who bond through study and experience of the natural world.
As one of our counselors says, “We are planting seeds so that inner-city children will have memories of what walking through a cool forest on a hot day and swimming in a natural pond with tadpoles feels like, so perhaps when they grow up and become decision-makers, they will remember to plant trees, gardens, flowers, and leave some wild places on the Earth and in their hearts.”
Please give what $$ you can to make this life-changing Kids To The Country experience happen for five at-risk kids who are eagerly hoping to participate!
Using direct hands-on experience with nature, Kids To The Country connects at-risk urban children with the Earth, often for the first time. KTC creates a transformative experience where every youngster can develop a deep connection with the natural world while also forming lasting feelings of accomplishment and self-worth and learning to participate in healthy relationships with individuals and the community.
KTC has been bringing inner-city kids to the country since 1986, and has made a real difference in the lives of these children and their families. All year long, kids talk about their dream to go back to Kids To The Country next summer.
Each summer about 150 children ages 6-11 — who are recommended for the KTC program by agencies serving homeless, refugee, and low-income children, mostly from the Nashville area — participate in KTC nature immersion, where they learn firsthand about their relationship with the environment — and other people — as they explore 1750 acres of woodlands, meadows, creeks, and hills near Summertown, Tennessee.
The children are immersed in the natural world — creek-walking, star-gazing, learning to swim in a natural swimming hole, horseback riding, biking and hiking through fields and forests, climbing trees, and getting to know and respect the huge diversity of plant and animal life.
The KTC staff is made up of trained youth counselors, teachers, artists, musicians, water-safety and horse riding instructors, and healthcare professionals. They teach skills such as gardening and plant-based cooking, horse care and riding, conflict resolution, expressive crafts, solar science, and nature arts. Activities can include cooking over a fire, finding a safe spot in the woods, nature hide-and-seek, weeding, harvesting, planting, working with a worm bin and compost pile, and identifying edible and medicinal plants in the woods.
Staff and volunteers are trained to see that each child meets with success on a daily basis. Activities are selected and designed to increase their self-confidence and to help the children build a sense of compassion with themselves, their peers, and the natural world.
During each session, we temporarily transplant these children from their urban, stressful lives to another planet: they become instant, valued parts of a community of teachers and students, with the forest and fields and creeks of nature their classroom, right outside the door. In addition to the health benefits, stress relief, and happiness brought on just by being in nature, the kids learn a lot: They learn to identify plants, both beneficial and harmful. They increase their capacity to observe nature, and they learn to make detailed descriptions of their observations. They experience eating healthy, nutritious meals (some kids have never eaten fresh fruit before). They garden, and learn about recycling and composting.
Kids To The Country also works to improve social and psychological functioning. In addition to widening the children’s world views through direct connection to nature, KTC’s programs teach nonviolent conflict resolution, for increased positive interactions with other individuals and groups.
KTC addresses inequality by teaching self-esteem and empowering children to think of themselves as having power to affect and care for their environment, and influence the world, including on a global level. During each summer Nature School session, we create a strong community of teachers and students from diverse races and classes, who bond through study and experience of the natural world.
As one of our counselors says, “We are planting seeds so that inner-city children will have memories of what walking through a cool forest on a hot day and swimming in a natural pond with tadpoles feels like, so perhaps when they grow up and become decision-makers, they will remember to plant trees, gardens, flowers, and leave some wild places on the Earth and in their hearts.”
Please give what $$ you can to make this life-changing Kids To The Country experience happen for five at-risk kids who are eagerly hoping to participate!
Organizer
Gayla Groom
Organizer
Summertown, TN
Plenty International
Beneficiary