This article first appeared in the May edition of Parks & Recreation Magazine We are living in strange and difficult times. At the Outdoors Alliance for Kids (OAK), we know this international pandemic is challenging for everyone. Physical distancing and sheltering in place are particularly difficult for people who know the value of spending time [...]
Category: Blogs
RELEASE: Outdoors Alliance for Kids and Scholastic Announce All Kids Outdoors Essay Contest Winners
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:April Thomas206.321.3850, april.thomas@sierraclub.org Outdoors Alliance for Kids and Scholastic Announce All Kids Outdoors Essay Contest WinnersNearly 2,000 Kids Nationwide Submitted Entries Washington, D.C., (May 23, 2019) -- The Outdoors Alliance for Kids and Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, are proud to announce the winners of the All Kids [...]
Youth Voices: The Outdoors And People
Sweepstakes WinnerEmmanuel O., 5th Grade, Falls Church, VA All Kids Outdoors Scholastic-OAK Youth Essay ContestYouth Voices Blog Series The Outdoors And People The great outdoor spaces, aren’t they beautiful? An outdoor space is any place outside a living space where people can interact, play, and relax. This includes the backyards of homes, playgrounds for kids, sidewalks, [...]
Youth Voices: The Importance of Outdoors
Honorable Mention by Indi M., 5th Grade, McLean, VA All Kids Outdoors Scholastic-OAK Youth Essay ContestYouth Voices Blog Series The Importance of Outdoors Children’s outdoor play is rapidly diminishing, we are focusing more on sedentary lifestyles. No one can deny our simple interest with electronics now in the modern era. The outdoors are the original foundation [...]
Youth Voices: The Great Outdoors
Honorable MentionKatie B., 6th Grade, Ellisville, MO All Kids Outdoors Scholastic-OAK Youth Essay ContestYouth Voices Blog Series The Great Outdoors Swinging, sliding, and climbing at parks are only for fun, right? Not true! Parks and outdoor spaces are not only for fun, but are actually necessary for the world. Parks and outdoor spaces improve our health, [...]
Youth Voices: How Nature Improves the Brain
Grand Prize Winning Essayby Violet M., 4th Grade, Kalispell, MTAll Kids Outdoors Scholastic-OAK Youth Essay ContestYouth Voices Blog Series How Nature Improves the Brain American marine biologist Rachel Carson remarked in Silent Spring, “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after [...]
RENEWING A LOVE FOR THE OUTDOORS THIS SPRING: Screen-Free Week 2019
guest blog by Rinny Yourman, JD, Screen-Free Week Outreach Coordinator, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, OAK Member When children have free time to themselves, how do we want them to spend it? We hope they’ll spend it looking down –not at screens– but digging in the dirt, gardening, collecting shells or stones, admiring flowers, watering [...]
When the Kids Speak Up
by Jackie Ostfeld, OAK Founder & Chair, Director of Sierra Club's Outdoors for All campaign Photo Credit: National Park Trust The Every Kid Outdoors Act is now the law of the land - no pun intended. An historic public lands package has swept through both chambers of Congress in atypical bipartisan fashion and landed on [...]
DETROIT KIDS NEED THE OUTDOORS
guest post by Mark Naida - originally appeared in The Detroit News. This story features Detroit Outdoors, a collaborative effort supported by Detroit Parks and Rec, The Kresge Foundation, and OAK members Sierra Club, YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, and REI. Living in an urban environment, Detroiters often don't get the same opportunities to enjoy the outdoors [...]
It’s Fresh Air Fitness Month!
Guest blog post by Marla Hollander, American Heart Association What could be better than taking a Walk in Nature with your kids? Thinking back on my childhood, my experience with nature as a kid was confined to the suburban neighborhood I grew up in including the neighborhood park, Grover’s Mill pond (yes, the infamous “War [...]
