Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center

Programs: See schedule o the nature center has long been a leader in providing excellent environmental education for individuals of all ages. Particularly well- known for its early childhood curricula for head starts and other preschools in the area, the nature center provides environmental education programs and camps for over 14,000 children per year in its classrooms as well as on its trails and habitats which serve as its outdoor classroom. The center regularly evaluates and modifies its curricula to ensure that it fully meets all oho academic content standards. This year the center successfully completed its fourth full year of the applied science for kids (ask) program for the cleveland metropolitan school district, designed at the district's request to provide science education and unique hands-on field experiences for all preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade students in the district. This year, the nature center served 4,178 children with the ask program, which is the majority of the preschool, kindergarten and first grade students in the district. Classroom kits and professional development was provided to 80 district teachers. The nature center also served more than 475 head start students and more than 80 head start teachers. In addition, the nature center served nearly 8,036 students from the cleveland heights-university heights and shaker heights school districts as well as other local schools and districts. The value of the nature center at shaker lakes to the northeast ohio community continued to be affirmed this past fiscal year through attendance at educational offerings, programmatic services and partnerships with other organizations. The organization celebrated its 50th anniversary in september 2016 with numerous activities and events to commemorate this major milestone that continued into 2017. Our fiscal strength was also affirmed as the nature center completed another year with a surplus, sustaining a period of financial stability and revenue growth. -approximately 40,000 visitors to the nature center enjoyed the trails, exhibit space, events and programs, including 19,630 visitors who actually came into the center building. -summer camp and spring break camp was again sold out with 627 attendees. -special events were highly successful. The annual summer benefit had 450 attendees and generated 72,306 in net revenues for the organization. -over 900 volunteers, interns and service learning groups provided more than 7,363 hours of volunteer assistance in land management, education, events and administration for the equivalent of nearly 4 full-time staff members, or more than 184,000 worth of service. -volunteer programs at the nature center contributed to youth development (job skills) and service learning opportunities. Volunteers assist the nature center in achieving the goals of conserving the land, connecting people to nature and inspiring environmental stewardship. Volunteers are welcome at all levels of participation to support programming and other activities. Our volunteers are involved in pulling invasive species, demonstration garden maintenance, outdoor adventure camps, education classes, welcome desk assistance, special events assistance, and office work. The volunteer program works with individuals, youth (13 and older), senior project candidates, college interns, and groups to provide meaningful experiences at the nature center. By any measure, fiscal year 2017 was a successful year in furthering our mission to conserve a natural area, connect people with nature, and inspire environmental stewardship.