Florida Beach Basics - The Space Coast in Schools

We are so delighted to tell you that we recently received a grant from the Friends of the Scrub / Allen Broussard Conservancy to put a copy of Florida Beach Basics - The Space Coast in every public and charter school in Brevard County. Yesterday, I delivered 75 copies to the School Board in Viera to be distributed to the Elementary schools. Middle and High schools are next. I had the Florida Beach Basics DVD reviewed against the new Sunshine State Standards for Grades 1 - 6, and hope to have the same thing done for the remaining grades. Matt will set up a For Teachers button on the website and upload the results as .pdf files soon. Hard to believe, but school will be starting soon, so teachers, if you need the Grades 1 - 6 results now, email me at StillNature@cfl.rr.com, and I'll email you a copy.

We were invited to apply for the grant because of the high regard Friends of the Scrub members have for our colleague/photographer, Jim Angy. Jim has been a long-time supporter of all things environmental in Brevard County and is well-known in the county as an award winning photographer, naturalist, and public speaker. Jim's photos were the basis for our Still Nature series of digital photo album CDs, and figure prominently in our Florida Beach Basics - The Space Coast package.

The image at the beginning of this post is the logo of Friends of the Scrub. Here is one of Jim's scrub jay photos.

Margaret Broussard wrote some lovely words in the grant letter and has given me permission to share them: "By showing children (and adults) the beauty of nature here, you will surely pique their interest in the survival of our native species in the face of the dangers they face from human activities. From such interest may blossom concern, and from concern, efforts to help save their lives and future generations."

I attended yesterday's County Commissioner's meeting regarding the purchase of some north Brevard land under the Environmentally Endangered Land (EEL) Program (it passed - hooray!). Nearly 40 speakers (including Margaret Broussard) eloquently spoke in support of the purchases. There was an idea that particularly caught my attention about children growing up with a "nature deficient disorder" and a phrase that I thought really summed it up: "When nature wins, we all win."