Celebration of Children in Nature Event

2012 Nominations

Nomination Deadline: March 30, 2012

Open the 2012 Nomination Form to nominate a person or organization for this year's event. Please send completed nomination forms to Westcave Preserve, 24814 Hamilton Pool Road, Round Mountain, TX 78663.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2012 Celebration of Children in Nature Awards Event to be held on September 20th. We are seeking the nomination of children, adults, organizations or groups of individuals who are doing exciting, innovative, successful work to offer solutions to the problem of "nature deficit disorder" - a term coined by bestselling author Richard Louv in his book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder". Awards will be presented in the following four categories:

E. Lee Walker Award for Community Collaboration - This child, adult, group or organization will have demonstrated the value of working with partners to create opportunities for kids to get out into nature regularly. Lee Walker has established himself as the quintessential collaborator, some might say a collaborator magnet, and so our award for community collaboration is presented in his name. Lee served as the chair of the Westcave Board, and has been its primary benefactor, for more than 25 years. It was Lee’s skill at collaborative leadership that generated the funds to build our fabulous Warren Skaaren Environmental Learning Center and those same skills have guided Westcave in a new and expanded strategic direction.

John Cover Watson Award for Vision - This child, adult, group or organization has had a far reaching vision for a future that embraces the importance of children reconnecting to our natural world. John Watson is a visionary architect who studied with Frank Lloyd Wright and has created a number of organically designed homes. John was the private landowner of what is now Westcave Preserve. John recognized that the public had a great desire to visit this very unique hill country canyon and he had the vision to partner with our life-long friends at the LCRA to create Westcave Preserve which was dedicated to the restoration and preservation of this extraordinary property.

John F. Ahrns Award for Environmental Education - This child, adult, group or organization will have innovated curriculum and integrated the natural world, and perhaps their schoolyard, into their classroom so that their students are inspired to become explorers of the natural world on their own time. John Ahrns is among a rarefied group of first rate naturalists and served as the preserve manager and lead educator from Westcave’s beginnings in 1976 until his retirement in 2010. John Ahrns began his work at the Preserve by hauling more than 100 full-size garbage bags of trash out of the Westcave canyon. Years later, when he had accomplished astonishing restoration and protection for the Preserve, John set out to build an environmental education program that now attracts more than 6,000 children each year.

Westcave Preserve Award for Enduring Dedication - This child, adult, group or organization has a significant history of getting kids out into nature. Like Westcave Preserve, which has been inspiring children and adults for decades, this award recognizes that there are many who have been toiling in the Children and Nature field for many years.

2011 Award Winners

The annual Children in Nature awards highlight individuals or organizations doing exceptional things that support the Children in Nature Collaborative mission and vision. Our 2011 award winners were announced in four categories recognizing excellence in connecting children to nature:

E. Lee Walker Award for Community Collaboration - El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission

The staff and volunteers of El Buen Samaritano have provided leadership to the regional Children and Nature movement from its inception – partnering with the Shield Ranch to create El Ranchito Nature Discovery Camp and Conservation Corp, an Outdoor Kids program on their campus, and supporting programs for kids and families that focus on healthier, happier and smarter kids.

John Covert Watson Award for Vision - Dr. Kimberly Avila Edwards, M.D., F.A.A.P. - Medical Director of Happy Living Healthy Living Program at Dell Children's Medical Center

Dr. Edwards has recognized the value in getting kids out into nature where they can have fun and adventure while moving their bodies and developing lifelong habits of healthy living in the sunshine and fresh air. She has also helped frame the “case” for getting kids outside from the pediatric practitioner’s perspective – adding relevance and urgency to this important issue.

John F. Ahrns Award for Environmental Education - William Early, 5th Grade Teacher, Laurel Mountain Elementary, Round Rock ISD

William Early, has mobilized an army of parents, students and fellow teachers to transform a former dump, adjacent to the Laurel Mountain Elementary School in the Round Rock ISD, into a spectacular nature preserve. He then created curricula in multiple areas of study (natural science, math, language arts and more) so that all 5th grade students spend regular time outside in the preserve, learning first -hand about the natural world.

Westcave Preserve Award for Enduring Dedication - Art Pasley, C.A.S.T National Program Director

For most of the children who participate in the C.A.S.T. for Kids fishing program, this is their very first time to experience the excitement of getting out onto the water, feeling the tug on the line, and catching a fish. Art Pasley began as the Southern Director of C.A.S.T and became the National Program Director in 2008. Art lives here in Texas where he oversees several “Fishing Kids” programs in Central Texas and beyond.

Celebration of Children in Nature Event

2012 Nominations

2011 Award Winners

Sponsors