On Saturday Feb 2, I had the opportunity to help teach art at the John Heinza Wildlife Refuge with Art Sphere. This wildlife refuge is only eight blocks from my house and I had no idea it existed!
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1972 and is a 1000-acre refuge for wetlands that span Philadelphia and Delaware counties in Pennsylvania, yet is also located next to the Philadelphia Airport. It protects the largest remaining freshwater marsh in Pennsylvania (350 acres) and yet from the park you can see the city skyline.
In addition to 300 species of birds, it is a refuge for bats, turtles, fish, deer, opossums, red foxes, raccoons, coyotes, beavers, river otters, minks, woodchucks, and muskrats along with a wide variety of wildflowers and plants.
John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge hosted a Groundhog Day festival and this was also my first time attending. I was very excited to experience so much nature!
The whole facility was decorated for Groundhog Day and I saw many brand new displays about native area animals and their habitats. Cara, Sarah, and I set up our table with art projects to teach the importance of protecting animal habitats.
We had many different crafts for the adults and children to choose from. One craft was bookmaking with small origami booklets made out of a single piece of folded paper with pages for writing and drawing. Another craft was coloring pictures of different native Pennsylvania fishes that can be caught at the refuge.
The most popular craft was Groundhog puppets made out of paper bags, construction paper, pipe cleaners, pompoms, and googley eyes.
The kids were really proud of their work and there were even babies and toddlers that enjoyed coloring. A blue goose (the refuge mascot) interacted with everyone who stopped at our table to make a craft. He made everyone laugh by dancing and high fiving them (I got one too!) I enjoyed myself and it was nice to see all of the children and adults having fun making crafts. We had over 100 participants!
