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Help VWS continue to say YES to community needs!

Dear friends,

The COVID pandemic has brought unprecedented needs, especially to children and families. Once people learned that being outdoors was the safest place for children to gather, our local community turned to VWS for help.

Thanks to your support, we have been able to respond:

200 classroom teachers asked for training on outdoor learning. We’re providing it for free.
Families asked for an alternative to “Zoom school.” We’ve tripled our weekday programs.
Kids were trapped at home all summer. We safely ran one of the only summer camps in the area.
Scholarship requests from local families are at a new high. We’re providing more funds than ever.

You can help VWS continue to say YES to these community needs!

Learn more on VWS’s GoFundMe page.

You can donate online, or mail a check to: VWS, PO Box 2582, Brattleboro, VT 05303.

We have until December 31 to reach our $80,000 goal. We’re over half way there!

Your donation impacts the whole community. We cannot do this work without you.

Yours in gratitude,

The VWS Staff & Board

Upcoming Programs for Adults

Transforming Grief, Connecting with Ancestry and Tapping Our Creativity NEW Online Format

Dates: December 12th, 9am – 5pm & 13th, 9am – 4:30pm ET
Who: adults
Where: Your Home or Other Preferred Spot with good internet access
This weekend is part of the Essentials of Resilient Community series of workshops. You may attend one, several, or all seven weekends (at a $145 savings).

In all of our backgrounds, we can find ancestors who lived in land-based communities, deeply connected to the natural world and to their cultural traditions. Threads of these ancestral traditions have survived to the present day all over the world, offering us gifts that can help guide us in living our lives today. Those gifts can give us access to powerful new creativity for living fully as mentors, community members, and citizens of the world. Tied in with those gifts is also the accumulation of ancestral losses and wounds that we are called to help heal and transform. Over this weekend we will honor our ancestors, connect with our gifts and creativity, and work with the grief that often arises in reclaiming our ancestry, acknowledging not-so-life affirming actions, and deepening our connection with the Natural World.

Opportunities to Work At VWS

We are looking for intern/volunteer instructors!

Our Intern Instructor role is an excellent opportunity for anyone who wants to become a nature based mentor and/or leader. Perhaps you’re a teen who wants to develop experience, build your leadership skills, or do community service. Or, you’re in college majoring in a related subject and looking to gain hands-on experience or do independent study. Or, you might be an adult who wishes to support the program or is considering entering this field. However you came to be interested in this kind of work, we want to hear from you!

Upcoming Programs for Youth

Great Blue Heron Community School (several spaces open!)

When: 9am-3pm, up to four days per week (Mon/Tue/Wed/Thur). Program runs from September – May.
Ages: 7 – 15
Where: Mondays – Marlboro, Tuesdays – Putney, Wednesdays – Dummerston, Thursdays – Dummerston.

Vermont Wilderness School programs inspire young people to deepen their relationships with the natural world and each other. Youth gain life skills and confidence, guided by an experienced team of instructors. Our approach to nature connection emphasizes outdoor living skills, naturalist knowledge, dedication to community service and social equity, and social/emotional development.

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE FOR ALL VWS PROGRAMS. Thank you to our many donors for their support of VWS’s Great Blue Heron Fund for scholarships.