Sara Holger saw organizations in her community doing important work with underserved youth, but many of their activities were held indoors. It looked like a missed opportunity for young people to gain the physical, social and mental benefits of outdoor education.
Holger holds a degree in natural resources and environmental studies from the University of Minnesota. The trained University of Minnesota Extension Master Naturalist instructor also coordinates the Project Get Outdoors (Project GO) program.
“Our work began in 2005 after I read Richard Louv’s book, 'Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder',” says Holger. “It motivated me to find a way to use my training to share nature with children.”
In the first year of the program, she walked with the Plainview Area Migrant Council coordinator, knocking door to door at a mobile home court to invite children to the Project GO summer program. They met children there each day, walked them to the park and walked them home.
Over Project GO’s 20 years of service, they have partnered with libraries, YMCAs, affordable housing sites and childcare centers, launching a movement to replace kids’ nature deficit with immersion in southeast Minnesota.
During an overnight camping trip, she overheard one of the kids say, “This is the best day of my life!”
Powered by local volunteers
“A major part of this work is finding volunteers with significant outdoor experience,” says Holger. “Nearly every aspect of our organization has been supported by Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteers.”
“In Extension, we take a close look at how we can help volunteers find roles that suit their circumstances, skills and goals,” says Amy Rager, Extension educator and Minnesota Master Naturalist volunteer manager.
Minnesota Master Naturalist Becky Bly volunteers with Project GO through the Hiawatha Valley Education District, taking students who have behavioral needs on outings to fish, hike, identify wildflowers and remove invasive weeds.
She is proud of the group’s recent volunteer efforts to rebuild an overgrown trail behind the Rollingstone Community School and to build an outdoor classroom at Goodview Elementary School with high school youth volunteers. “It doesn’t take a lot of money to do these projects and most are not complicated,” she says.
Pam Miller volunteers with Project GO’s Nature Explorers program for preschool children at Frontenac State Park. She completed the Minnesota Master Naturalist course at Whitewater State Park in 2021, calling it, “wonderful, leading to all kinds of interesting volunteer opportunities and friendships.”
Miller specializes in fungi, leading guided walks. Volunteers like Bly and Miller enhance local programs with their rich knowledge of Minnesota’s forests, rivers and prairies.
“What’s most valuable about working with them is that they volunteer in the communities where they live,” Holger says. “They know the area and their neighbors. They have roots and are invested in these places.”
Outdoors in nature, ‘magic happens’
Holger sees every moment young people spend in nature as having the potential to inspire a lifetime of appreciation and a sense of responsibility.
A lifetime of appreciation can begin in many different ways. Watching a caterpillar crawl inspires curiosity. In an overstimulating world, the quiet brings peace. Climbing to find a hidden waterfall builds pride.
The biggest reward of this work for Holger is sitting around the table with community leaders and local volunteers in different towns and cities, identifying resources and strengths they have.
“We help build community by engaging people together in nature,” she says. “Therapists know that when they take their clients outdoors into nature, magic happens. People let down their walls and connect in powerful ways.”
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