Kalamazoo Chosen as Demonstration City

Kalamazoo Gazette – September 25, 2008
By Margaret DeRitter

Kids, it's time to get off the couch, turn off the PlayStation and get your hands dirty.

Parents, it's time to get your kids outside and get out of their way.

Those are the messages of the No Child Left Inside movement, and Kalamazoo is helping to lead the way, with the Kalamazoo Nature Center at the forefront of the local effort.

Kalamazoo was chosen recently by the nonprofit Children in Nature Network as one of three Michigan cities that together will become a national demonstration project funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Holland is one of the others, and a city in southeastern Michigan is yet to be selected.

The goal is to give children more outdoor play time, fewer scheduled activities supervised by adults and less time with TV, video games, computers and other electronic media.

Bill Rose, president and CEO of the Kalamazoo Nature Center, talked about the new project Tuesday morning at the Kalamazoo Country Club as he tried to drum up support from other community leaders.

"Kids need down time like all of us -- time they can explore, think freely and go out into nature," he said. That kind of time encourages creativity; fosters emotional, social, physical and intellectual development; counters stress; and has even been shown to decrease the symptoms of children with attention-deficit disorder, he said.

Rose asked audience members to think back on their favorite childhood memories. For those of a certain age, such memories often involve days spent digging in the dirt, riding bikes or picking up frogs by a pond. But for younger Americans, it's like they're "under house arrest," Rose said.

He showed a slide with a comment from a fourth-grader in San Diego: "I like to play indoors better because that's where all the electrical outlets are."

That's the kind of attitude Rose and the Nature Center staff are hoping to change. He acknowledged that parents worry about their children's safety but said they can do something as simple as setting aside part of the backyard as a place where their kids can go out and dig. More outdoor play could help combat the nationwide problem of childhood obesity and make kids stronger and healthier, he said.

Some local pediatricians already support the program, Rose said. They ask parents how much time their kids are playing outside and urge them to encourage more free, unfettered play.

State supports movement

Statewide, people have begun to pay attention, too, Rose said in an interview later on Tuesday. For two years, Gov. Jennifer Granholm has signed proclamations designating certain days in April as "No Child Left Inside Days." And the state park system, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the city of Holland and the state office of the National Wildlife Federation have been involved in promoting outdoor activities for kids.

Several states, though, are ahead of Michigan in promoting outdoor play, Rose said. "We want to see if we can catapult Michigan far ahead on this."

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last week called the No Child Left Inside Act. Funds provided would train teachers to use outdoor education to spark student learning. The Senate version is still in committee, but, according to the National Wildlife Foundation, it has strong bipartisan support.

When federal money comes to the states, "we want Michigan to be first in line," Rose said.

The Nature Center has already been working on No Child Left Inside goals for about two years, Rose said. It brings entire classrooms of children to the center for a week of outdoor learning

The Nature Center also plans to add new camping facilities and to turn its DeLano Homestead into a working farm that would give kids "real hands-on" outdoor experience.

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