The message on my iPad read, “Hi!! I have a question for you and you can absolutely say no!! What are the odds the great Mr. Mike would be willing to come out of retirement next Friday?”

Do you notice the clever way of using the words “the great” just at the right time in that message? How could my ego turn down such a request?

So I didn’t!

Cassie sent the message as she was doing my old job as the Bonanza Education Center’s Coordinator. She by the way is a real ‘firecracker’ and is filling the position exceptionally well and I think many are referring to her as “the great” also.

It seems she was in a minor ‘pickle’ because 150 kindergarten thru six grade students were scheduled to spend their last school day at Bonanza. Cassie needed to come up with ten small group presenters. With my eight years of Bonanza experience it was natural that she would think of me as someone to send a desperate request to.

The part I hate about coming out of retirement are the anxiety issues that such a venture causes. I begin to worry. Can I still do a successful presentation? What type of presentation should I carry out? Will a teacher be with each group to do the disciplining? What if the children don’t enjoy the activity I come up with?

Now those fears can last for several weeks so thankfully it was a short notice request so the anxiety issues didn’t have as much of an opportunity to ruin my life. 🙂

Cassie had told me I could do my favorite activity. That didn’t help much since I had carried out hundreds of activities over the eight years I had served as the coordinator and to be honest I loved them all.

We decided to meet at Bonanza the Monday before the Friday onslaught of 150 excited soon to be liberated elementary students. In fact it was Memorial Day to be exact when Cassie, her mother, grandmother, my wife and I all congregated in front of the Bonanza Building.

What I assumed would be a brief thirty minute visit turned out to be three hours of hiking and exploring. I showed Cassie a temporary pond that she was unaware of and we exchanged many ideas as we walked along.

It turned out to be the perfect way to lessen my anxieties because by the end of our three hour hike I was pumped to get a presentation ready.

The presentation was not even one of the many I had done previously. Later that week in the early morning hours when sleep would not come to me I thought of it. I would title the presentation “Bonanza’s Savanna” .

I would take each of my five groups of fifteen K thru third graders on a hike and introduce them to the Bonanza savanna where they would gather samples of grasses and tree leaves. The children would fasten and display these items on a sheet of cardboard and bring it home as a memory of their visit to Bonanza.

That of course would require me to prepare five sheets of cardboard labeled “Bonanza’s Savanna” with subheadings “Forest” and “Grasses” where the plant parts would be fastened. At the bottom I included a space and labeled it “Wildlife”. Here we listed what animals we thought would use the savanna for their homes.

So off to the recycling center I went to gather the correct sized cardboard sheets to produce the perfect display boards for the savanna exploration displays.

I always seem to make more work out of educating munchkins then I really needed to. Can you say “workaholic”? 🙂

The day was beautiful. The 150 children were on their best behavior. All ten presenters showed up and the children were kept busy doing many varieties of activities. The only disappointment to me was the groups that came to me had just had a s’more party on the beach and not one little munchkin thought to bring me one! 🙁

It was good to get back with children again. They are so positive and honest and I was reminded of that during one of the presentations. I was deep in a discussion with them trying to get them to tell me what a ‘habitat’ was when a solemn faced little boy announced, “My dog died last night!” That led to a little girl adding, “My cat had five kittens on Sunday!”

Several minutes were spent discussing these events and then a little girl piped up and said a habitat was like a home for animals and plants and we were back on track again. What a joy it is to teach little ones! 🙂

Besides enjoying the day interacting with children and adults I was reminded of the continual changes that outdoor education at Bonanza undergoes.

Cassie is a grant writer. I was not. Thus she has been able to add archery equipment as well as other outdoor equipment to the Bonanza learning arsenal. One of the presenters showed me an attachment to her iPhone that can serve as a microscope and take pictures of the magnified objects.

I had butterfly nets and thought I was hot stuff! 🙂

My visit to Bonanza reminded me that I represent outdoor education of the past and today’s outdoor education continues to build on where we old timers left off. I am glad I have been a part of that educational growth and I’m excited to see those young ‘whippersnappers’ step up and continue to teach children to understand and love our great outdoors. 🙂

Until next time.