Morning snow showers didn’t prevent area families from gathering to honor planet earth in a local celebration of environmental protection.
Saturday’s Earth Day event coincided with the grand reopening of the Keay Nature Learning Center, at Skokie Boulevard and Hibbard Road in Wilmette, where friends and neighbors joined Park District officials for a ribbon-cutting and other springtime activities.
Marketing Coordinator of the Wilmette Park District Natalie Heleniak said this was the first-ever Earth Day celebration in Wilmette.
“Keay is a special little gem, and as stewards to the parks and natural spaces in our village, we were thrilled to make it part of this seasonal celebration,” Heleniak said.
The event began with a 10 a.m. ribbon cutting led by the Board of Park Commissioners, followed by a lineup of ecological exploratory fun for participating families including scavenger hunts in search of native species of birds and trees, trekking the trail and taking part recycled-materials craft making.
Recycled-materials crafts included making a paper roll bird feeders and house-style bird feeders out of repurposed paper cartons.
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“Educational information was also provided to support families in learning about what they can do at home to be more sustainability-minded and to help the environment,” Heleniak said.
Lindsay Anderson of Wilmette attended with her daughters.
“This is one of our favorite parks in Wilmette, and we were so excited to see what they’ve done with the improvements,” Anderson said.
Superintendent of Parks and Planning at the Wilmette Park District Kristi Solberg said the funding for the park improvement project was partially covered by the Ouilmette Foundation and the remainder by Wilmette Park District capital funds.
“In addition to the existing pond, waterfall, footbridge, and hard dirt path walkway, at Keay, we added seven natural play areas along the path and repaired walkways, using dead or declining trees from other area parks to create balance beams, tables, walking stumps, etc.,” Solberg said. “The project also included adding all natural benches, replacing rotten timbers with brick pavers and adding turf stone to eliminate rutting within the park from mowers and other maintenance services.”
According to the Backyard Nature Center website, the Keay Nature Center was originally dedicated in 1981, named for the late Stephen R. Keay, director of the Northern Suburban Special Recreation Association, who dedicated his life to the recreational needs of individuals with disabilities to create a park accessible to all people.
Organizers say, it was the perfect opportunity to honor Earth Day and to bring people out to Keay.
John Palmer of Wilmette attended Saturday with family.
“We love this nature preserve and we visit here in all different seasons — we came because we want to take care of our earth, and we can start close to home, something important for us to instill in our children and in ourselves,” Palmer said.
Gina Grillo is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
