California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot and his family joined us on Sunday, April 13, at our 1 pm “Flower Walk.” It was such a beautiful day out. The flowers are starting to form the rings around the pools. We were able to see several Pacific chorus frogs, found the exoskeleton of a tadpole shrimp, and the shed skin of a garter snake out in the field. Red-winged black birds serenaded us and even got to listen to a western meadowlark welcoming us.
The Secretary brought his wife and daughter to Splash to learn more about our programming and the Illa Collins Vernal Pool Preserve. He was all in and loved looking at the parts of the flowers through the loop we let him borrow. Thank you, Wade, for taking time out of your intense schedule to spend the afternoon with Splash! We hope to see you and your family again soon!
Project AWE welcomed City of Elk Grove, City Manager Jason Behrmannn, on April 17th. We had such a great time showing Jason and the staff a field trip in full swing. We welcomed 81 third graders from Florin Elementary School to the Historic Nicolaus Dairy. The bees are buzzing as we just welcomed a new swarm of bees into our observation hive this month. We have bees again at the dairy. The flowers are in full bloom, and the crops are growing for Spring!
“I am deeply grateful for my recent tour of the Nicolaus Dairy provided by Sacramento Splash and SacSewer,” said Jason Behrmann, City Manager of Elk Grove. “The partnership between these two organizations has created something magical that preserves an important part of our region’s agricultural past and offers a unique hands-on learning environment to inspire the next generation. The program, led by knowledgeable and energetic docents provides a critical connection for students to the natural world in a way that would not be possible in a classroom setting.”
Happy Earth Day! Splash celebrated with a visit from CA State Treasurer Fiona Ma and her staff out at Project AWE! Although it was a cooler and windy day out at the dairy on Wednesday, April 23rd we managed to show Fiona our program through the field trip with Mack Elementary who were visiting with two Title 1 5th grade classes. We spent time in the garden tasting our harvested snap peas, saw how artichokes grow, planted some new veggies for the upcoming field trips! Fiona loved feeding the goats out of her hand with animal crackers, their favorite treats. Thank you to the Treasurer for spending part of her week with Splash. We hope she will connect us with new funding partners to help us sustainability fund this ever popular program.
Currently Project AWE is the only program at Splash that has a large funding gap. We are truly grateful to Sacramento Area Sewer District for their partnership in funding this program for so many years and for the ongoing majority funding of 55% of the expenses to run the program. We also want to thank SMUD for their program sponsorship helping us fill the gap. We appreciate your support today and always as we continue to want to grow our impact so that more students would be able to have these experiences.
Thank you for all of the VIP’s that were able to come out this month to visit our newest and now largest program!