Join the Club
We know finding time to get outside can be tough and that figuring out what to do once outside can be even more difficult. That’s why Riveredge Nature Center has started a community based Family Nature Club series in Ozaukee, Washington, and Sheboygan Counties.
What’s a Family Nature Club?
- Family Nature Clubs provide scheduled family time during the week, where members can work and play together outside without distractions.
- Family Nature Club gatherings will take place monthly from September to June, and our club leaders take charge of all the organizing of trips and activities and allow families to focus on bonding, instead of planning.
- Not only will you connect as a family, but you’ll meet other families with similar values and interests and experience natural areas and activities throughout your community that you can return to again and again!
Ready to join the club? Check out all the meeting dates for each county below and just fill out the one minute Google Form for that club to RSVP! The club is totally free, and you can join at any time- no long term commitment needed!
When we meet
In Ozaukee County in Partnership with Cedarburg School District
Meeting Location: (check individual dates for any trips or off-site meetings planned)
Leader: Thelma Heidel-Baker -Cedarburg Scientist in Residence @Riveredge Nature Center
Upcoming Meeting Dates & Activities:
Check out our latest happenings on our Facebook Page at: www.facebook.com/OzCoFNC/
Thelma Heidel-Baker
Scientist in Residence
Thelma Heidel-Baker is the Scientist in Residence for Riveredge Nature Center at the Cedarburg School District.
With a love of the outdoors, and particularly anything insect-related (she‘s an entomologist after all!), Thelma’s experiences as an scientist, farmer, and outdoor educator will bring some fun learning adventures to the Ozaukee County Family Nature Club.
When she isn‘t doing outdoor nature education in Cedarburg, she’s farming and spending time outdoors with her family (Ricky and kids Ava and Arthur) on Bossie Cow Farm, their organic, conservation-focused farm near Random Lake, WI. Come join Thelma and her family as they explore the many sides of nature in Ozaukee County with the club!
Sheboygan County in Partnership with Bookworm Gardens
Meeting Location:
(check individual dates for any trips or off-site meetings planned)
Leaders:
Jessica Jens, Executive Director @ Riveredge Nature Center
Cate Bayles, Director of Education & Community Programming @ Bookworm Gardens
Upcoming Meeting Dates & Activities:
Keep up-to-date on this Club: join it’s FB group!
Thank you to the Kohler Foundation for sponsoring the Sheboygan County Family Nature Club!
Jessica Jens
Executive Director
Jessica Jens is the Executive Director of Riveredge Nature Center and lives near Cedar Grove with her family: James (husband), Aspen (12), and Ian (8). Together, they love planning epic adventures for family vacations. On a daily basis, they raise chickens, pigs, and turkeys (sometimes) and have a couple of horses on their hobby farm while doing their best to tend to the land. Aspen and Ian typically help out at the Family Nature Club outings and particularly love fishing, frog catching, kayaking, rock collecting, swimming, campfires, and snow-filled adventures. As a laid back, and rather spontaneous family, they all believe that the best adventures are the ones that aren’t planned, but present themselves in the moment.
Cate Bayles
Club Co-Leader Bookworm Gardens
Cate Bayles is Director of Education + Community Programming at Bookworm Gardens in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. When she’s not flying like a butterfly or buzzing like a bee in the Gardens, she loves hiking and adventuring throughout the Midwest! Family Nature Club has introduced Cate to frog catching, night time hide and seek, and fishing! No fish were caught... but the baiting the hook was a hoot! Lots of nature firsts for this lady!
Washington County in Partnership with the West Bend School District
Meeting Location:
(check individual dates for any trips or off-site meetings planned)
Leader:
Rachel Feerick, Scientist in Residence at West Bend School District
Meeting Dates:
Rachel Feerick
Scientist in Residence
Rachel Feerick grew up in Wisconsin where her passion sprouted for the great outdoors; started with day trips to Riveredge, overnight YMCA camps, camping with her family, and backpacking adventures. Eventually this love grew for the outdoors expanded to working in the outdoor/wilderness industry in Alaska, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Nunavut, Canada. Rachel is thrilled to share her excitement of being outside and exploring with the Family Nature Club. She is looking forward to sharing moments that promote new experiences and growth within others. In her spare time she enjoys cooking and baking yummy food, creating art, writing letters, reading in wooden rocking chairs, canoeing, and being in her fruit and vegetable garden.
Priscilla Galasso
Cedar Lakes Community Foundation
Priscilla is passionate about learning and the environment. She spent her K-8th grade years living across the street from a Cook County, IL forest preserve. A river ran through it - the Des Plaines river. That place was her playground, her discovery zone, her best friend. Later, as a mom raising 4 kids, she would retreat to her neighborhood prairie for quiet sanctuary. She says she knows that the outdoors is vital to her well-being, and its health and protection is critical for everyone on the planet.
Priscilla currently works part-time for Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation, a land trust that has protected more than 2400 acres in the towns of West Bend and Polk. She has also worked for Old World Wisconsin and Discovery World and volunteered at Wehr Nature Center. Prior to living in Wisconsin, she was a substitute teacher and the Operations Supervisor and a teacher with a children’s theater company. She was a Girl Scout for 12 years and a Girl Scout leader for three years.
She loves being with kids and sharing their enthusiasm, wonder and playfulness. She says, "The first time I stepped into the Riveredge Nature Center, I felt at home. It is a place of exploration and appreciation focused on respect for the natural world. I am rewarded each day I spend here with the joy of seeing kids engaged in truly loving this Earth. I am so grateful for that gift!"
Linda Mutschler
Cedar Lakes Community Foundation
Linda Mustchler is currently the Executive Director of the Cedar Lakes Conservation Foundation (CLCF) and is passionate about conserving the natural environment of the Cedar Lakes region. Linda is excited to connect families to some of CLCF’s properties through Family Nature Club activities. Linda is a big fan of Riveredge’s programs, and her two children spent many summers as Riveredge camp participants. In 2019, Linda’s daughter, Jam, was the Garden and Permaculture Education Intern at Riveredge. Linda and her family love spending time hiking CLCF’s trails with their golden retriever
What’s the big deal?
Between soccer practice, orchestra recitals, homework, jobs, and everything else your family’s schedule has to throw at you, we know that finding time to breathe, let alone spending quality time together as a family, can be extremely difficult. That’s why we’re here to help.
These days, the average family spends just eight hours a week together, while the average child spends less than 30 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play (compare that to six to eight hours a day in front of a screen!). So what’s the big deal? The research is clear:
- Spending time together as a family increases emotional bonding and communication between family members and significantly reduces behavioral problems in kids.
- Time spent outside, meanwhile, has huge health, happiness, and wellness benefits for every family member.
- Even better? Spending time together as family outside combines the benefit of both into one potent boost of family bonding, as a brand new study shows.
