Tuesday, December 1st is known as Giving Tuesday and is the
opening day of the giving season; a time to celebrate and encourage activities
that support charities and non-profits. This Giving Tuesday, we wanted to
highlight some of the great work Alberta museums are doing in their communities, and to
encourage support for these institutions through the Robert R. Janes Award for
Social Responsibility. We spent the day in Red Deer getting
to know the 2015 recipient of the Robert R. Janes Award for Social
Responsibility: the KerryWood Nature Centre and Historic Fort Normandeau.
A little background before we get into our adventures: The Robert R. Janes Award for Social Responsibility supports and furthers the work of museums that are solving community issues and promoting health and well-being through programs that affect real social and environmental change. Recipients are awarded $3000 to put towards investigating why their programs are so successful and modelling these successes for other museums in Alberta through a one-day workshop. As the third recipient of the Janes Award, Kerry Wood Nature Centre and Historic Fort Normandeau will host a workshop in the spring of 2016 to share their experiences with other museum professionals.
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| Accepting the Robert R. Janes Award for Social Responsibility at the Alberta Museums Association 2015 Conference |
We arrived at the Nature Centre in the morning ready to
explore. Our hosts Jim Robertson, Executive Director and Todd Nivens, Program
Coordinator did not disappoint, providing a day of discovery, learning, and
sharing that we shared on Twitter under the hashtags #GivingTuesdayCA and
#MuseumsEngage.
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| Welcome to the Kerry Wood Nature Centre |
The
Kerry Wood Nature Centre and Historic Fort Normandeau are located on the banks
of the Red Deer River. Historic Fort Normandeau is just to the west of the Red
Deer at the point where First Nations, Metis, and Europeans gathered to cross
the river before the railway between Calgary and Edmonton was completed. The
Kerry Wood Nature Centre is on the eastern edge of Red Deer between the river
and the Gaetz Lake Bird Sanctuary. Fort Normandeau is closed in the winter, but
we got a great summary from Jim and Todd of the reconciliation and cultural
renewal work being done with local First Nations and Metis, and we are excited
to experience the site in the spring.
The Centre’s enthusiasm for and involvement with the
community was evident in every conversation we had. Discussions of past projects
flowed into plans for future development as we met with a number of the
Centre’s partners.
The Centre’s enthusiasm for and involvement with the
community was evident in every conversation we had. Discussions of past projects
flowed into plans for future development as we met with a number of the
Centre’s partners.
The City of Red Deer’s Environmental Services Department described the City’s Environmental Master Plan
and the support the Nature Centre provides in promoting programs that encourage
citizens to reduce waste, increase energy and efficiency, and be more
environmentally conscious overall. One of the most exciting (and topical!)
collaborations was the Christmas Light Exchange. Residents of Red Deer were
encouraged to bring their old strings of incandescent outdoor lights to the
Nature Centre to be recycled and, in return, receive a new string of energy
efficient LED lights. Between 2009 and 2014, the program collected enough
strings of lights to run the reclaimed copper wire from Red Deer to Vancouver,
a distance of nearly 1100 km. Even more impressive is the fact that the program
is no longer in operation – because it is no longer needed! After five years,
nearly all the incandescent lights in the city have been replaced with
efficient LED lights.
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| CARE Offices |
At the Central Alberta Refugee Effort (CARE) we learned about
the development of camping and literacy programs that introduce new Canadians
to nature and outdoor recreation. A literacy pilot project at the Centre offers
space for English language classes. Running at the same time is a nature-based
childcare program, so children can enjoy three hours of hands-on, exploratory
learning in the outdoors while their parents attend class. Families can attend
introduction to camping programs that teach the basics of pitching a tent,
building fires, and other survival skills, and then apply these skills during a
weekend trip to a nearby provincial park. Both CARE and the Centre were
obviously passionate about the importance of nature education, and the
important role it plays in helping people adjust to a new country and community
– and proud, just as we are, of showing off our beautiful, wild province.
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| Climbing in the Imagination Grove's natural playground. |
As we crossed the city and learned new stories from each
partner, it became very clear that every project and plan is rooted in the needs
of the Red Deer community. From roving interpreters in Red Deer’s parks, to outdoor
children’s programming, the Nature Centre works to remove the physical and psychological
barriers to nature and promote a deeper understanding of our place in the
environment in the past, present, and future.
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| Finding music in the Harmony Garden |
Before heading back to Edmonton we took some time to
explore. We banged out tunes on the musical equipment in the Kiwanis Harmony Garden,
climbed trees in Imagination Grove, read a story on the Gaetz Lake path, and
crawled through tunnels in the galleries. Inside the galleries, there are
wooden books about the environment and Red Deer’s many environmentalists, a
subtle homage to the books that made Kerry Wood a famous author. The only
technology is a bicycle connected to a video screen that tours Red Deer’s river valley parks as you pedal.
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| Exploring the Red Deer River park system in all weather. |
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| We really got into the new exhibits |
Lauren Wheeler, Program Lead
Katrina Peredun, Communications Lead
Katrina Peredun, Communications Lead
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