“You wanna see my fish?”

Eighteen participants sat in a circle of camp chairs looking at Ken, then at the small girl with the bucket. She was about five years old and on a mission.

Ken had not noticed her as she walked toward the circle. He continued to focus on the session-topic of volunteerism at the Urban Ecology Center. The group had gathered as part of a multi-day introduction to the model — connecting people in cities to nature and each other — pioneered in Milwaukee. The UEC staff was bringing their expertise as an urban environmental education and community center to people from cities across the U.S. and other countries.

Experience the serenity of the nighttime forest in the heart of the city, spend some time in the outdoors with us.

Candlelight Walk and Candlelight Walk for Kids are yearly traditions of honoring the longest night of the year. Take a guided stroll down the luminary-lit paths of the Milwaukee Centennial Rotary Arboretum and enjoy stops along the way for readings of seasonal poetry and prose. Back at the Center warm yourself by the fire as you enjoy music, snacks and hot cider.

Saturday, December 15 | Riverside Park
Walks begin at 7pm and continue every fifteen minutes (last walk leaves at 8:30pm)
Pick Your Price: Program Cost - $14 | Member Discount - $10 | Price Break - $7

Registration for specific walk times is required.

Register for your Candlelight Walk start time below

If you are unable to register for a selected walk time, that means that the walk is full. We apologize that our website is unable to update walk availability in real time.

The Candlelight Walk for Kids features offers earlier start times, kid-friendly readings and stories, shorter routes for littler legs, crafts, games and, of course, hot chocolate and snacks back at the Center! 

Saturday, December 15 | Riverside Park
Walks begin at 4:30pm and continue every fifteen minutes (last walk leaves at 5:45pm)
Pick Your Price: Program Cost - $14 | Member Discount - $10 | Price Break - $7

Registration for specific walk times is required. (Free for kids 3 and under)

Register for your Candlelight Walk for Kids start time below

I am a relatively new Community Programs Educator at Washington Park. We do much more than I ever expected!

What do I do? Here are some examples.

Roughly a month ago we taught the principle of cause and effect to a group of five year olds from Fernwood Montessori School in Bay View. As they came into the building for their second visit three weeks later, many of them kept saying, “I remember you! We played tug of war and you lost!”

Even though we are a few months into the school year, I can’t help but reflect on my summer as a camp leader. Think of this as a preview of what your friends and family could look forward to next year.

The theme that sticks out most for me and my summer was my lunches. Yep, I said it, lunch. Last year I ate lunch outside at over 20 different places in Milwaukee. I am not talking about your local restaurants. I am talking packing up a lunch and driving, biking, hiking or paddling to our lunch destination.

It was 5pm on a late fall, Friday evening and I was enjoying a cup of hot chocolate at the Menomonee Valley branch’s reception desk. A group of our regular youth visitors were running around the building as it was too dark outside to explore Three Bridges Park and they were having too much fun to go home. It was a quiet evening, perfect for kids to just hang out and be themselves in our safe community center. I couldn’t see anybody around, but I could hear little feet moving fast.

I love fall! We begin a new school year with excited students, perfect sunny days and beautiful changing leaves. Fall is also when I get to teach a class that brings kids into the water to look for macroinvertebrates. It’s one of my favorite classes to teach.

The program begins with the students tucking in their shirts and climbing into waders to explore the Milwaukee River. We hand them kick nets and bins to hold the benthic invertebrates they find. As we head to the river, there is nervous excitement. It is fun to watch the first groups get their bearings in the water.

On a line of rope tied between two trees in Washington Park, six brown paper bags jumped in the wind. Two-year-old Lilli Morby stood with her father, Josh, and watched with wonder as a member of the Urban Ecology Center’s Community Science team took down one of the bags, put in a hand and pulled out a calmed songbird. The researcher weighed and banded the bird, identified its gender and a new family memory was made.

This summer and fall, bring your inquisitive 8 – 12 year olds to Driven to Discover: Outdoor Inquiry Camp at Riverside Park. This 10-week program guides kids through the process of discovering answers to their own questions while being active outdoors.

“Miss Katie, I love nature!” “Nature is the best!” I absolutely love hearing these exclamations as students dance on Washington Park’s Band Shell, climb fallen trees or dip nets into the lagoon. As my first year of teaching students in our school program comes to an end, I begin to reflect on everything I have learned during this year.

“Get out your hard hat! It’s time to put some materials to the test. Stretch’em, soak’em, crush’em – use what you learned to construct something (a bridge, a bird nest or a building) to solve a problem.”

This is the description for one of our school programs for second graders. We use the Three Little Pigs story as a reference. Students get to know about the properties of certain materials, then they are divided into groups to build up sturdy enough structures out of cups so as to withstand the wolves’ huffs and puffs.