Debbie grew up in the mountains of Kentucky and spent thousands of hours exploring the woods surrounding her house. Her grandmother was a flower fiend and loved to dig up flowers in the woods and bring them to the garden. Her yard was a wonderland. Beans grew up the sides of her porch, there was a pond with beautiful inlaid glass around it for color and grapes grew on the trellis over her sidewalk. She ate cantaloupe every morning and gave the seeds to the birds. She was certainly an inspiration!
Fast forward several years and Debbie was living along Greens Bayou in Houston, Texas and she was working at the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. Every day she would go out at work and see how many snakes she could find. (her record was 19 in one day) Victoria was four when we moved there and she loved to play in the yard, along the bayou and even built a bluebonnet fort.
In 1995 we moved to Joliet, Illinois outside of Chicago where Debbie became the Manager of Pilcher Park Nature Center. As such, she belonged to Association of Nature Center Administrators where she heard a speech at their National Summit about nature play. She learned about Robert Michael Pyle’s work and that of Richard Louv.
Victoria has lived in Key West, Florida and in the Seattle area of Washington state. She is a nature photographer, observer and is well indoctrinated in the ways of nature play for both children and adults!
Debbie and Victoria are now both passionate about the need to get children outside! With that said – we are in the 2nd, sometimes 3rd generation of folks that have explored the great outdoors. People who have never watched a sunset or have no real connection to the environment. If you don’t love something – you don’t vote for it! If our grandchildren are going to see whales, we need to clean the ocean, but we also need to make them love the ocean and everything in it too! So, there you have it. Debbie and Victoria’s philosophy on life and the miraculous world we live in. Please join us for a bit of inspiration.
Please check back with us often for new ideas and new places to get out into nature.