Santa Maria children can learn about plants, animals, and outdoor activities in their area through the Wildlife Explorers program: a returning Santa Maria Department of Recreation and Parks opportunity that expanded this year for more kids to join, Recreation Supervisor Rudy Gutierrez said.
“We were really looking for opportunities to engage the youth in the community with the outdoors and everything that’s great about being outdoors. We do a lot of outdoor, nature programs for everyone in the community. We wanted to bring that into town, to offer that to the community, and [to] the kids who can’t make it out of town all the time,” Gutierrez said.
Each week starting Feb. 2, California Naturalist Susan Tuttle will lead children ages 5 to 10 through different activities to educate children about wildlife that lives in their neighborhood. The first program is called Eyes in the Sky, which will bring in raptors—birds of prey—for a live demonstration about their purpose in nature, he said.
“It’s cool because it exposes them [children] to the critters and the wildlife they may not see in town. The purpose is to connect youth in the city to nature,” Gutierrez said.
The COVID-19 pandemic pushed the program to expand because of a higher demand for outdoor recreation, he added.
“It’s a great outlet for kids to get out and play, and get away from TV and video games to learn a lot about nature, local plants, and wildlife,” Gutierrez said. “Susan does a great way of educating them with different, interpretive talks. They do nature crafts and scavenger hunts; it’s something fun. We want to make it a very hands-on experience.”
Alongside Tuttle, a translator speaks about the different activities for non-English-speaking kids, making sure they get the same experience as English-speaking children, he highlighted.
“We thought it was really critical to have the bilingual component for [the] non-English-speaking and Spanish-speaking residents. With the different demographics we have in our community, we wanted to make it available for any child in the Santa Maria Valley,” he said.
This year, the department expanded its Wildlife Explorers program to 15 spaces as opposed to 2021’s eight available spots, Gutierrez said.
“We had a pretty good turnout last year [2021], filling each spot each week. It was more of a challenge last year; we had less numbers because of more restrictive COVID guidelines, but we [were] able to open it up a little more,” Gutierrez said. “We had really good feedback from the parents, and it gave us an opportunity to provide this kind of outdoor experience to the schools and the kids in the area. We’re right after school at 3:30 p.m., and it gives them something to do.”
Parents must be in attendance with their kids throughout the program, and pre-registration is required. To provide this experience to as many people as possible, no repeat registrations are permitted. The Wildlife Explorers Program runs every Wednesday from 3:30 to 5 p.m. until Feb. 23. It also follows Santa Barbara County COVID-19 guidelines and enforces social distancing during the program’s duration.
To register, visit cityofsantamaria.org/register and use session number 10600. Buena Vista Park is located at 800 South Pine St. For more information, call the Recreation and Parks Department at (805) 925-0951, Ext. 2260.
Highlight
• The Santa Maria Mayor’s Task Force on Youth Safety has activities for seventh through 12th grade students from 2 to 4 p.m. each Thursday in February at the Newlove Community Building. Students can participate in a cornhole competition on Feb. 3, a water bottle rocket experiment on Feb 10, a planter pot painting on Feb. 17, and a canvas painting on Feb. 24. The Task Force on Youth Safety’s mission is to prevent violence through safe and healthy programming in partnership with the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department. The Newlove Community Building is located at 1619 South Thornburg St.; no pre-registration is required. Call the Recreation and Parks Department at (805) 925-0951, Ext. 2260, for more info.
Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor wrote this week’s Spotlight. Reach her at [email protected].
