East Fresno Kiwanis Club
Project Description Kiwanis One Day Project 2009
by Howard Jackson
Project Title: Hidden Homes Children's Nature Trail Project-Young Children Priority One Project
Project Summary: East Fresno Kiwanis Club members will take on a project to improve an existing young children’s nature trail along the San Joaquin River.
Full Summary of the Project
Members of the East Fresno Kiwanis Club two years ago voted to take on a project lasting up to five years and committed up to $30,000 to improve a young children’s existing nature trail and adding exhibits for young children. The trail makes available an outdoor learning experience for young children 3-5 years of age. The project is called the Hidden Homes Children’s Nature Trail. The ¼‑mile trail encircles a large pond near the San Joaquin River in Fresno County. While walking around the pond, children currently encounter five larger‑than‑life sized river animal homes where preschool children learn about animal habitats, the river environment, and the importance of preserving the San Joaquin River for future generations.
As part of our Club’s Kiwanis One Day project last year, 104 members of the EFK Family provided over 500 hours of volunteer service working on the trail. Members cleaned spring weeds, brush, debris, and trimmings from the trail. With the help of one EFK member who brought his tractor, a gathering and viewing site was carved out of the trail for children to view animals such as a beavers, hawks, ducks, and egrets. With an auger attached to the tractor, some 40 post holes were dug to hold posts placed around the pond for bird houses which are donated to the project and sold as a fundraiser. A ton of large round egg shaped boulders were purchased and donated to the killdeer nest exhibit for children to learn about this very interesting bird.
An energetic committee worked with the staff of the center housing the trail to put this large and effective project together. The project participants included 31 East Fresno Kiwanis Club members, 31 Key Club members from the four EFK sponsored Key Clubs, 12 members from EFK’s sponsored K-Kids Club, four from the Builders Club, and 14 Aktion Club members as well as 12 non Kiwanis Family members that included SLP Advisors, friends, and family.
Expenditures: $1,000
Service Hours: 525
Children Benefited: Some 8,000 children and river buddies visited the trail this year alone.
Total Number of Kiwanis Participants: 104
EFK Club Members Participating: EFK-31; SLP members-61; Others-12
For this year’s Kiwanis One Day Project we propose to continue this five‑year project with lots of exciting activities related to improving and enhancing the children’s nature trail. Projects will include the following:
© The usual spring clean-up of the trail
© Grading the trail and preparing the trail for paving to insure handicapped accessibility
© Installing an irrigation system to prepare for planting native trees and shrubs
© Repairing and retrofitting for accessibility some of the existing nature exhibits
© Other projects as identified by the River Center staff.
Impact on Our Community
The East Fresno Kiwanis Foundation proposes to expand and improve a project of the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust that makes available an outdoor nature learning experience for young children 3-5 years of age and their families. This young children’s foot path features larger-than-life sized river animal homes where preschool children learn about animal habitats, the river environment, and preserving our natural resources. While walking along the trail which encircles a large pond, children sometimes are lucky enough to encounter a variety of wild animals in their natural habitat in this protected sanctuary including waterfowl, beavers, and hawks. The children’s play and learning areas currently include an eagles nest, salmon run, killdeer nest and caddis fly home.
It has been well documented that many children and their families in the Fresno area do not experience life beyond their own neighborhoods. Many are unaware of the San Joaquin River and all the wonderful experiences that are available within a short drive from their Fresno home. This program proposes to enrich the lives of children and help them gain appreciation of the larger world in which they live. It also proposes to give young children an early introduction to important environmental issues such as respecting our land, river, and animal habitat by expanding the learning experience.
The work of the East Fresno Kiwanis Club will improve the trail to make it accessible for all children and will eventually expand the number of children’s nature exhibits including a wheelchair accessible “field mouse hole”.
The work on this Kiwanis One Day will provide the infrastructure for increasing accessibility and incorporating more homes along the trail. It will also insure the viability of the trail for generations of children and their families to come.
Increasing Club and Kiwanis Awareness
For the past eight years, the East Fresno Kiwanis Club has participated in Total K Day and now Kiwanis One Day. Every year except one, EFK has partnered with the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust to improve and beautify the Parkway experience. Each year during the project, we have engaged the media and provided the community an example of Kiwanis hands-on service. In previous years, we worked on other sections of the Parkway. Last year, we undertook improving the Nature Trail for Children as it seemed a perfect fit in the hierarchy of our Club’s and of Kiwanis International priorities – Young Children Priority One. The club made it a five‑year project and committed up to $30,000 to the project.
As a direct result, the Club was awarded a grant of almost $100,000 this year from First Five of Fresno County to go along with the $30,000 in Club funds do more trail improvements over the next few years. This grant was awarded in part by the strong impression EFK family members made in its Total K Day projects and especially last year’s Kiwanis One Day Project. No other Kiwanis or service club has ever received such a grant award to take on a project of such magnitude in Fresno County. We anticipate that this year’s Kiwanis One Day Project will continue to promote Kiwanis efforts and our Club’s service to the community. We believe it will continue to impact our community in many ways including greater Kiwanis awareness within the broader community.
Youth Involvement in the Project
A trademark of EFK’s history of work along the Parkway and on the Hidden Homes Children’s Project has been the tremendous involvement of the EFK Sponsored Leadership Programs (SLP). EFK sponsors a K- Kids Club, Builders Club, four Key Clubs, a Circle K Club at Fresno State University (CSUF), and an Aktion Club. Last year we had 61 SLP members participate in the project. This year we expect to have even more SLP members involved with the reactivation of the Circle K Club at CSUF. They currently have 25 active members to add to our exceptional youth involvement in our Kiwanis One Day Project last year.
Because of our SLP involvement and uniqueness of our Kiwanis One and Total K Day Projects, the Cal-Nev-Ha District has awarded our club with the Outstanding Project of the Year Award for our Club’s effort in past years.
The long range plan is to have each of our SLP clubs to sponsor one of the Children’s exhibits and help maintain and improve the experience for children. As the project expands, we hope to have some of our older SLP members involved as docents and helping with the learning experience for young children who tour the trail.
This year, I would expect that we would have at least 75 SLP members involved in the workday project. We will not need additional funding in order to involve our SLP members in this project. One reason we get such wonderful participation in our Kiwanis One Day Project is that the famous EKF cooking crew provides a wonderful BBQ lunch for all the volunteers. The young folks as well as the adult volunteers look forward to the luncheon experience and program.
