March 2019 - Parks & Recreation - 44

Members of the Fishers
Mayor's Youth Council listen
to Fishers Assistant Director
of Water Quality Jonathan
Valenta on a tour of the local
wastewater treatment plant.

Connecting Residents with Local Parks
and Government Through Educational
Partnerships
By Daniel Domsic

I

n a small section of a school library in Fishers, Indiana, Danesa Stolz,
chief naturalist at Fishers Parks & Recreation, tells listening first graders a myth about the symbiotic relationship a tree has with woodpeckers as the seasons change and the tree counts on the birds to rid it of
parasites. The storytelling is just one part of the lesson being taught as part of
the Nature First program, a special partnership between the park department
and its local school district, Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) Schools.
The creation of Nature First was
a pivotal moment for this young
park department that serves about
90,000 residents in the suburb of
Indianapolis, Indiana. After a summer study with local teachers and
administrators, Stolz built the program to capitalize on the popularity of a favorite, local park, Ritchey
Woods Nature Preserve, a strong
relationship with the HSE Schools

42

Parks & Recreation

District and the ability to craft programming that meets Indiana Department of Education standards.
Back at the library, after the students hear the myth, they learn a
lesson about measuring and use it to
ascertain the age of a Sugar Maple
tree. This exercise is combined with
an explanation on photosynthesis
and how maple syrup is made. At
the end of it all, the students taste

| M A R C H 2 0 1 9 | W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G

test real and fake maple syrup and
even get a treat, a maple candy, made
after a certain percentage of water is
boiled off Sugar Maple sap.
The students will continue their
learning with study trips to Ritchey
Woods Nature Preserve in the
spring, connecting their young
minds with local natural resources,
while meeting the standards their
teachers would have covered in the
classroom. Nature First would set
the bar for this type of programming at Fishers Parks & Recreation.
Getting Teenagers Involved
The Fishers Parks & Recreation department partners with every firstgrade classroom throughout the

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUSAN DAVIS

SOCIAL EQUITY



March 2019 - Parks & Recreation

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