Our Candlelight Walk and Candlelight Walk for Kids on Saturday, December 17th, are dedicated to enjoying the quiet solace of a winter’s evening on one of the longest nights 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 as you experience the serenity of the nighttime forest in the heart of the city. Back at the Center warm yourself by the fire as you enjoy snacks and hot cider.

Price: $5 ($10 for nonmembers)

Walks begin at 7 and continue every fifteen minutes through 9 o'clock. Registration for specific walk times is required.

Click here to register for your preferred time.

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

Walks begin at 4:30 and leave every fifteen minutes, with the last kids' walk leaving at 6. Registration for walk times is required.

This special evening is an Urban Ecology Center tradition. Spend it with us as we enjoy the gentleness of our longest nights and celebrate the increasing daylight still to come.

Price: Adults: $5 ($7 for nonmembers) Children: $3 ($5 for nonmembers)

 Click here to register for your preferred start time!

“Good morning pretty lady!” exclaimed a Neighborhood Environmental Education Project student a few weeks ago, as I passed her class walking near the lagoon. I never quite know what to expect, as I head to work each morning. Her inviting smile and her silly demeanor were a welcome surprise. I knew I was going to have a good day.

I am an educator with our ever-growing after school program and my morning walks have offered me time to reflect on my work with youth and community members.

As our art exhibits enter their tenth year, Sally Duback, one of the founding members of our arts committee offers this reflection about the beginning and growth of the program.

Ten years ago, UEC board member Danni Gendelman convinced the board that it would be a good idea to host nature-related art exhibitions in the community room. In order to make this happen, she pulled together a small committee of Milwaukee area artists/arts professionals Barbara Manger, Sally Duback and Leon Travanti; and discussions began among them about how this could work.

Winter took its time getting here this year, but it definitely showed up ready to go! In a matter of days, Washington Park became covered in beautiful snow, and things are lining up beautifully for our annual Winterfest!

Our Candlelight Walk and Candlelight Walk for Kids on Saturday, December 19th, are dedicated to enjoying the quiet solace of a winter’s evening on one of the longest nights 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 as you experience the serenity of the nighttime forest in the heart of the city. Back at the Center warm yourself by the fire as you enjoy snacks and hot cider as well as live music from Toco Rio, playing a mix of jazz, Brazilian, and seasonal tunes.

Price: $5 ($10 for nonmembers)

Walks begin at 7 and continue every fifteen minutes through 9 o'clock, with no registration necessary.

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

Walks begin at 4:30 and leave every fifteen minutes, with the last kids' walk leaving at 6. New this year, participants can register below to reserve a spot on the walk time of their choice.

This special evening is an Urban Ecology Center tradition. Spend it with us as we enjoy the gentleness of our longest nights and celebrate the increasing daylight still to come.

Price: Adults: $5 ($7 for nonmembers) Children: $3 ($5 for nonmembers)

Candlelight Walk for Kids - Register for your preferred start time!

“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
- Benjamin Franklin

The Washington Park community is calling for YOU! Tell a friend, a co-worker, a relative, or an organization. Tell everyone, at the top of your lungs. Tell someone about the great partnership opportunities at the Urban Ecology Center in Washington Park.

Recently we have been partnering with more and more youth-serving agencies, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee for example, across the entire city and have really enjoyed the opportunity to actively work with and teach our young people about the environment and being responsible stewards. The challenge has been and will continue to be fun and rewarding.

Thanks to enthusiastic interest all walks on our Enchanted Forest event have filled and registration is closed. For a less whimsical but no less fun look at Riverside Park at night, consider our Park After Dark event: this educational program explores the nocturnal life of the park and finishes with a campfire and treats.

Our Enchanted Forest event features the best nightlife in Milwaukee! Kids and their grown-ups will enjoy a guided nighttime walk through Riverside Park and encounter costumed characters along the way. "Uprooted" is this year's theme, and participants will learn fascinating facts about plants taught by the trees themselves!

Back at the Center kids can join in games, crafts, and an indoor forest scavenger hunt, while everyone can refresh themselves with some snacks.

Walks begin at 5:30 pm and leave about every 20 minutes. The last walk leaves at 7:20 pm. New this year, participants can register to reserve a spot on the walk time of their choice.

Thanks to enthusiastic interest all walks on our Enchanted Forest event have filled and registration is closed. For a less whimsical but no less fun look at Riverside Park at night, consider our Park After Dark event: this educational program explores the nocturnal life of the park and finishes with a campfire and treats.

My first month as an Urban Ecology Center intern is in the books, and while I already feel totally at home here, I still have a lot to learn about the everyday happenings at the Center.

Last week there was a brief lull in activity for myself and the other interns; our official training sessions had ended, and most of the interns were working on refining their lesson plans for the coming Summer Camps they would be assisting with. I used the quiet week to explore some of the activities that happen at the Center every day, all year long.

As a child I loved visiting other people’s houses, because visiting a different house seemed like an adventure. Maybe they would have a secret passageway. Maybe they would have a tree house or maybe a fireman’s pole. Maybe they would have a pony, or maybe they had a magic key that I would find! The possibilities seemed as endless as my imagination. I could make myself into a character of a new story with each new setting.

The awareness of these memories are at the front of mind when my nieces come to visit. I have two nieces, Macy and Ella: ages five and two, respectively. I think our house still seems like uncharted territory to them, where mystery and magic can still be discovered and I am happy to play along.

Last time they visited they walked in the door, took off their coats, and Macy said, “Can we go play on your bed? We can pretend you have a magic bed!” Why, of course! As we huddled under the blankets they said, “now you tell us stories.” So, I made up a story about a magic pond with golden water and a pink frog. Admittedly it was not my best story, yet they were captivated.

Stories, what remarkable things they are; they entertain us, they transform us, they transport us and they connect us. They have been woven into the fabric of history and of our lives. Children ask for stories and seek out a good storyteller while most adults happen upon them as a pleasant interruption in their busy lives.

Regardless of age or how we hear them, experiencing a good story is like a tasty treat to enjoy and savor and get lost in for a time. We would like to fill the Center with stories from the Urban Ecology Center community, so this year we are trying something new: a storytelling event. You are our community and family who have come through our doors for ten years and through the park for many more. You are the people who have helped to create the Center’s sense of place. You are the characters of the stories that take place at the Center and in the park and you have stories to tell. We are calling teen and adult storytellers (practiced and

novice) and story listeners to come together for an evening to connect through stories.

So whether you would like to tell stories or listen to stories, please join us on March 19th. For more information about the event and how to submit a story, visit urbanecologycenter.org/storytelling.

Here at the Urban Ecology Center, we love to celebrate different events, activities and programs offered throughout the year. To celebrate winter, we hosted several great outdoor programs, including excursions to Lapham Peak for cross country skiiing by candlelight. Not only were we excited about this program, but the attendees seemed to have a blast as well. One attendee, Dan, is a contributing member here at the Center who recently wrote a guest blog that reflects on his experience at this program. Read on to hear why Dan enjoyed this program due to its built-in sense of camaraderie.