Educational Programs

 

Earth Days

 

We celebrate Earth Day every year in the following various ways

 

On April 19, 2007 120 seventh grade students from Big Hollow Middle School in Ingleside were invited to submit essays in order to compete for the honor of participating in our Project. 30 students were selected to plant over 400 prairie plants out side our Visitors Center. 

The program started indoors with a 30 minute DVD introduction on prairies, followed by a brief story of Volo Bog’s efforts at prairie restorations. Back outside, students worked in teams of 4 or 5 headed by one of our Prairie Garden Volunteers digging holes and planting various prairie plants. Working with the students were volunteers Bernadette & Clarence Haase, Sharon Loris, Ann Shanks, Nancy Schietzelt, Fred Schultz, and Bob Vetter

 

 

Photos by Bob Vetter

 

Earth Day 2008                                                                                                   

 On April 17, 2008 Eric Skoog brought 20 Antioch upper grade school students, who are also members of a Kiwanis Club, to Volo Bog State Natural Area to plant native plants in a prairie area near the Visitors Center.  The morning started with the viewing of a DVD titled “America’s Lost Landscape – The Tallgrass Prairie.”   Naturalist Stacy Iwanicki then led the students outside to plant the native grasses and forbs.  Funding was provided by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Education Earth Day in the Parks Program with a grant from the Illinois Conservation Foundation.  Each student was given a packet of information including a poster of Prairie Plants of Illinois.  They were also invited to keep the hand trowels they used for planting.  Volo Bog’s Prairie Gardeners Chris Brenner and Bob Vetter were on hand to both instruct and assist in the planting.  Observing was DNR’s, Matthew Schmidt from the Chicago office.  After all the plants were in the ground, a lunch of sandwiches, chips, cookies, and drinks was provided for everyone.

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Bob Vetter

 

Earth Day 2009

The Spring of 2009 , through Earth Day in the Parks, a program organized and funded by the IDNR Division of Education, we were able to obtain over 400 new plants and students to help plant them! Eleven students from SEDOM Center in Woodstock (on May 15) and fifteen Girl Scouts from Arlington Heights (on May 22) helped get them in the ground.  Nancy Bodinet of the Prairie Garden Volunteers and Joan Proell of the Native Garden Volunteers along with Garden Coordinator, Bob Vetter and Site Naturalist, Stacy Iwaniicki  assisted the students and we were able to plant about half with their help.  The rest were put in by PGVs and other volunteers in the following weeks. The plants were purchased through the EDITP grant from Red Buffalo Nursery in Hebron.  

 

SEDOM Center Students

 

Digging in the plants

See our dirty hands and our tools;  now we go into the Center to wash up for eating snacks

Photos by Johanne Frost

 

Snack time for the hard workers

 

Girl Scouts a week later

Stacy instructs while Joan & Nancy prepare the plot

Photos by Bob Vetter

 

 

 

Earth Day 2010

 

 Some fifty plus12th Graders from Lake Park High School on April 22nd came to Volo Bog to plant more then a thousand native plants aided by Prairie garden volunteers. The students arrived by buss about 10 a.m., and they were ushered into the Volo Bogs class room for an overview on planting native plants. They were then split into groups for planting on Shrub Hill, Cherry Hill and down in Entrance Hollow. After the planting there was lunch and a video on prairie plants. Our volunteers from the NGVs & PGVs in Alphabetical order: Dave Albright, Linda Bannier, Len & Mary Lee Becker, Nancy Bodinet, Chris Brenner, Karen Dietrich, Barb Fotland, Linda Kantor, Myrna Nelson & Joan Proell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo by Barb Fotland

 

Earth Day 2011

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On April 21st sixty twelfth grade students accompanied by some of their teachers arrived by bus from Lake Park High School in Roselle to learn about and to plant some 800 woodland native plants along the Tamarack trail in the area called “The Good Wood”.  Led by Site Naturalist, Stacy Iwanicke and Garden Coordinator, Bob Vetter, ten volunteers Kate Altman, Nina & Julia Denne, Karen Dietrich, Steve Domski, Melonnie Hartl, John Holmes, Linda Kantor, Jack Powell, and Stacey Statzmann were there to assist. It was a beautiful day, and the students did an excellent job of getting all the plants in the ground. Park Superintendent, Greg Kelly made an appearance and Stacy captured and then released a young northern water snake after showing it to everybody. Refreshments were served, group photos were taken, and then a walk on the bog boardwalk before boarding the bus back

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos by Bob Vetter

 

 

Earth Day in the Parks 2012

 

The twenty six motivated 6th – 8th grade student team of ”OWLS” Outdoor Wauconda Life Sciences along with parent & teacher volunteers arrived at Volo Bog on April 19th to help plant some 1,000 native woodland, savanna & praire plants in the Chipmunk Woods area. We provided volunteers from both Volo Bog and the Moraine Hills State Park. Under the leadership of our on Site Naturalist, Stacy Iwanicvki, we had Garden coordinator Bob Vetter and assisting from Volo Bog Nancy & Cal Doughty, John Homes, and Karen Dietrich: from Moraine Hills State Park Kelly & Teddy Hultin, Neil Whitman and Steve Domski.

 

 

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