Leadership class opens nature trail
By Beth Koop
Eagle Staff Writer
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — Children at the Butler County Children's Center now have a clearer path to learn about the outdoors.
That is because they now can take walks on the new Early Learning Nature Trail at the center on Rieger Road. It is the community service project of the 2016 class of Leadership Butler County that had a ceremonial opening Wednesday.
The almost 900-foot trail includes an outdoor classroom, a rock-climbing area, an obstacle course, three educational kiosks, and butterfly garden.
Class members and others worked to clear the trail, add drainage and spread 250 tons of limestone.
The project included making the trail educational, safe and accessible for young children and those with disabilities.
“It has exceeded all expectations,” said Steve Green, center executive director. “The trail is beautiful, and the kiosks and everything else on the trail has turned out so nice.”
Green explained that the kiosks were custom-built with plexiglass covers that can be lifted to change the information to fit the teachers' weekly lesson plans.
Ideas for the trail were conceived through a committee consisting of members of Leadership Butler County, the children's center staff, the Audubon Society, Intermediate Unit IV, and Slippery Rock University faculty.
The concept behind the trail was to get children outside and away from electronics in the classroom.
Green said, “When we talked about this a year ago, we said we've got to get kids off electronics and we've got to get them out of the classroom and we have to get them moving. Moving and learning was really our main goal going into this project.”
He added, “For me, the trail represents our community coming together and working together to really create something special for children in the future and for generations to come.”
Amy Double Pignatore, trail project leader, said the project was initially smaller.
“We had an opportunity to pick a project for the leadership class so the group voted on the Early Learning Nature Trail. Once we had chosen the project and we went out to the site, we realized it was going to entail a lot more work than we had originally anticipated,” she said.
Along with contractors, Double Pignatore said everyone pitched in on several weekends starting in May to construct the trail.
“I'm so proud of our class of 2016. People really stepped up to the plate and we got in and got dirty. We were sweating a lot on those hot humid Saturdays but nobody was standing around.”
The trail, which was initially built by the Young Professionals of Butler County about five years ago, was improved for use by center children attending the Mount Chestnut Early Learning Center, and another 300 students at satellite locations.
The children's center, along with Intermediate Unit IV, educates about 200 children, ages 3 to 5. They have special needs or live in low-income households.
The children's center provides Head Start, Early Head Start, kindergarten and Pre-K Counts programs.
