ERIN KINNETZ​ RECEIVES RISING STAR AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EE

Erin Kinnetz has been the Education Specialist at The Parklands of Floyds Fork for four years. In that time span Erin has greatly elevated the scientific content presented during school field trips, outreach programs, and adult education programs.

She is in charge of a weekly program called Wednesday Wonders that is geared towards PreK students and their families. Pre-pandemic Erin hosted this program twice each Wednesday of the year engaging over 500 students and families. When the pandemic shut down our in-person programming, Erin pivoted to a virtual program. She never missed a single Wednesday and has even grown her following of students. In total since the pandemic began she has garnered tens of thousands of views on Youtube.

In addition to her hard work creating and presenting virtual EE content during the pandemic, Erin was also instrumental in the development of the Forest Learning Lab at The Parklands. At Forest Learning Lab students came to The Parklands each day, and with the help of our educators, were able to complete their NTI curriculum while also getting time to hike, creek walk, and explore nature. The Forest Learning Lab hosted over 400 students with 100 of those students hosted for free on a scholarship basis.

Because of Erin's hard work and dedication to the field of EE, The Parklands has actually been able to grow their programming - even during a pandemic. Erin has an undergraduate degree in scientific illustration and a masters in biology. Her knowledge, patience, enthusiasm, and passion make her very deserving of this award. Below is an example of Wednesday Wonders which Erin leads every Wednesday of the year and didn't miss a single Wednesday in 2020 - even with the pandemic raging.

Parsons, along with the five other award recipients from around the state, will be recognized at KAEE’s 45th Annual Conference during outdoor regional meet-ups and on September 23rd during the virtual conference opening.

NATURE RELIANCE SCHOOL​ RECEIVES OUTSTANDING ​BUSINESS PARTNER AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN EE

Nature Reliance School (NRS) provides environmental and outdoor education opportunities to youth and adults through hands-on learning opportunities, lectures, on-line directed classes, blogs and literature. NRS continues to influence environmental education by encouraging safe engagement with the outdoors and natural resource education and management strategies.

“The uniqueness of our approach and the skills developed by our students provide an individualistic development of appreciation, understanding, and self-awareness of the importance of our environment,” said NRS Director and Chief Instructor, Craig Caudill.

NRS, along with the five other award recipients from around the state, were recognized at KAEE’s 45th Annual Conference during the virtual conference opening and at outdoor, regional, pre-conference meet-ups.

SEEA RECEIVES OUTSTANDING PARTNER AWARD

Each year the Environmental Educators of North Carolina (EENC) publicly recognizes environmental educators, members, organizations, and partners for their valuable contributions to EENC, the North Carolina community, and to the field of environmental education.

For this year’s Outstanding Partner Award, the Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEA) was selected for its role in supporting EENC through capacity building, leading to growth for EENC that would not have happened otherwise. Since 202, SEEA has been an affiliate of NAAEE and represents a partnership between eight southeastern states. SEEA supports a part time executive director, a steady stream of grant funding, and many successful regional projects. EENC has participated in all of SEEA's grant opportunities, resulting in over $18,000 in financial support in the past two years alone. These funding opportunities have helped provide regional mini-grant opportunities, provided leadership training got the EENC Board of Directors, JEDI training for EENC members supported statewide projects including a landscape analysis, and have helped support EENC's Executive Director position transitioning to full time.

Beyond grant funding, SEEA has been critical for capacity building in the EE community across the southeast, bringing a myriad of crowd-sourced and supported training to all the statewide EE associations in the region. This includes crowdfunding assistance, webinars, expert training in membership structure, technology platform sharing and training, monthly leadership team meetings and newsletter, as well as a yearly regional conference and research symposium.