If today’s students have the opportunity to go outside regularly to collect bugs, watch a bird in flight, identify an animal track or walk quietly through the woods, when they are leaders, they will choose to safeguard our natural world.
Rob Aldrich, director of community conservation for the Land Trust Alliance
Setting an example – In late 2016, we received a call from Dr. Robert Christie, a Hanover Conservancy member and long-time Connecticut River Commissioner, asking about our student outreach programs. He had just attended our showing of The Messenger and was moved by the film’s message: that we must all take action now to direct our planet towards a sustainable future.
Inspired to “think globally, act locally,” Dr. Christie made a significant gift to the Conservancy’s Community Engagement program, from the Robert William Christie, M.D. Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. This has enabled our staff to partner with the Richmond Middle School and Hanover’s after-school program for hands-on environmental education focused on the river and Hanover outdoors. Conservancy staff spend Wednesday afternoons on trails and in streams with students from K-5th grade. Since 2017, hundreds of Ray School students have had the opportunity to take part in these “Wednesday Wanders.”
