As a volunteer, Camoya remembers, “The first thing they had us do was canoe…and I’ve never canoed before. I was really nervous and it was completely out of my comfort zone. But they were like ‘you can do it, you can do it!’”

“The staff were very encouraging. So we got in the canoe and we canoed the lagoon. It was one of the best days I’ve ever had here.” From Camoya’s first introduction to the Washington Park Urban Ecology Center as a youth volunteer in 2014 to her years in the High School Outdoor Leader program and then acceptance to college in the fall of 2018, we’ve loved being a part of this amazing young woman’s journey!

My most memorable “nature moments” as a kid involved close encounters with animals: meeting live snakes at Riverbend Nature Center in my hometown of Racine, encountering bighorn sheep on a family trip to Badlands National Park, going fishing in lakes in Northern Wisconsin. At the Urban Ecology Center, our mission is to connect people to nature, and providing interactions with animals is one of the most visceral ways we do that.

The Washington Park branch of the Urban Ecology Center has a sense of family. Once you’re there and interacting with everyone around the place, you will for sure feel the vibe too! There are so many reasons why the UEC feels like a home away from home.

Perhaps you have seen the recent headlines?

Urban Ecology Center's $12 million expansion plan at Washington Park would save taxpayers
— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 25, 2018

Urban Ecology Center plans $12 million expansion at Washington Park site
— Milwaukee BizTimes, May 29, 2018

Yes it’s true, with emphasis on the words “offers” and “plans.”

One of my favorite things is to roll into Riverside Park on a fall day and hear the crunch of leaves under my tires. From the paved oak circle to the crushed limestone path along the Milwaukee River, my power wheelchair and I are a team looking for everything that being in nature brings.

As an employee of the UEC, I'm super proud of our commitment to providing experiences that bring everyone as far into urban nature as they are willing to go. Together we've learned that sometimes all it takes to increase access to nature for people with disabilities is ingenuity, curiosity and a sense of adventure.

The viscerally devastating moving picture of a polar bear struggling to board a chunk of ice, dissolving under its paws, still haunts me today. Judging by the public and critical response to the The Inconvenient Truth—a national and international box office success from 2006—I was not the only one that found the documentary poignant and disturbing. The impact of the film is best captured by the Oxford University-run survey which shows that as many as 89% of respondents said it made them more aware of the problem of global warming and as many as 74% of them claimed that they had changed some of their habits after seeing the film.

I have a lot of memories that were made on the Washington Park Lagoon. The most memorable has to be when I totally slayed in ice hockey my first time ever playing! Okay, I didn’t really slay - I survived in style. While I tell you about it, I’ll throw in some facts about a cool opportunity available to you at the Urban Ecology Center at Washington Park.

Many times, members have shared with me their fond memories of ice skating on the Washington Park Lagoon while growing up. Having accessible skating in their neighborhoods was a huge part of many people’s childhoods. It was an important part of my childhood, too! I walked to a local park to go ice skating. Providing that service to the Washington Park neighborhood is something that we take great pride in as an organization.

In our December 2017 Weekly Guide emails we introduced our supporters and friends to some people they helped connect to the outdoors. We think their stories are pretty awesome so we put them together in case you missed any of the updates. Experience the Urban Ecology Center through the videos below. You'll find a determined teen, a budding butterfly scientist, a Menomonee Valley family, and one of our monthly donors.

At first, it might seem as if the concepts of curiosity and focus are at odds with each other. After all, isn’t curiosity — which we all wish to inspire in kids — a wondering mind that finds the unknown thrilling and riveting? To a certain extent, yes. However, a child’s curiosity is much more: it is a pull to uncover the truths of the natural and the man-made world. As such, it requires time, patience and focus, from both the kids and the teachers.