Crafts at Little Creek Conservation Area
May, 2024
by Devan Rupel, Class of Fall 2023
I absolutely love the first Saturday of the month. It is a great day to have a wonderful morning with some excited folks. I started volunteering at this event in November 2023 because I was very interested in moths, and this particular date was centered on nocturnal animals. I reached out to the education coordinator for the event and asked if I could create a craft. I was surprised that he enthusiastically said “sure!” to me.
The first craft that I organized was pretty cool. I very meticulously cut out about 400 “moths” on white paper, then collected the dried leaves of those specific moth’s host plants to have the kids make a collage on their moths. It was cool to use the actual resources on this craft.
After that I was hooked! This has been the organization that I’ve grown attached to and I’ve gotten a lot of good feedback for growth. I’ve even gotten the encouragement to host my own summer learning series at the Audubon Center at Riverlands — which with the help of the wonderful education coordinator Ashley is sold out! I am so grateful to them for their kindness and support.
At the very last event in May, the theme was “meet the animals” so I created a craft that made kids think about what animals they wanted to meet in natural areas. The goal was to have them actively plan on visiting these organisms and consider possible challenges in doing so. I also really wanted to integrate Leave No Trace principles into this activity so that we can start discouraging littering before it even begins! As a side note, I would greatly encourage all Master Naturalists to take Leave No Trace training. It is very easy, quite informative, and FREE!
During the last event, I invited my friend Greg to come and photograph the event. He did a wonderful job in providing photos that truly captured the magic of the event. He wasn’t the only person that accompanied me to an event, though. I dragged both of my little sisters, Cristen and Ava, along and they loved each event! I was also accompanied by my partner, David, and he very excitedly participated in the scavenger hunts with the hopes of winning a pair of binoculars for us in the raffle drawing. He is very sweet and if anyone has any extra binoculars, let me know. All of this to say that the event truly supported the local community, and also helped to build my own and bring us all together.
The First Saturday at Little Creek is truly magical and I would encourage everyone to come to these events with young children. Bring them! Have them do my overly involved crafts! Enjoy a nature walk! Events will resume at the start of the school year, so keep your eyes peeled!
