Severson Dells Nature Center receives grant for Nature’s Apprentice program

Severson Dells Nature Center has been awarded a grant of $5,000 by The Ralph E. and Mildred Johnson Fund of Community Needs of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois.

The grant will underwrite some of the costs to create a “Nature’s Apprentice” program, a 45-hour course focusing on nature in northern Illinois. Participants will deepen their knowledge and interpretive skills of the region’s plants, animals and ecosystems.

“Our nature center has been connecting people of the region to the natural world around them for 30 years,” Brian Leaf, executive development director, said. “The grant from the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois gives us additional resources to train formal and informal educators, especially those who teach or volunteer time helping others learn about nature at schools, museums, clubs, nature centers, scouts, arboretums and other facilities.”

Nature’s Apprentice classes will meet for nine weeks, Jan. 8-March 15, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6 to 8:30 at Severson Dells Nature Center, 8786 Montague Road, Rockford. (map)

For more information on coursework and fees for Nature’s Apprentice, call Brian Leaf or Don Miller at (815) 335-2915.

Severson Dells Nature Center was created in 1976 when Fannie Severson gave 369-acres of forest, prairie and farmland to the Winnebago County Forest Preserve District. While the center is housed Forest Preserve building, Nature Center programs and activities that more than 10,000 residents participate in each year are funded through a non-profit organization, the Severson Dells Education Foundation. Connie McIntosh of AMCORE is president of the board.

The Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, founded in 1953, is a public charity that grows and manages charitable assets for distribution to nonprofit organizations and programs serving the Northern Illinois region. The Foundation evaluates and helps coordinate needs with services, so that charitable gifts are used effectively to address our community’s most critical needs. In the past 10 years the Community Foundation has given more than $30 million in grants to charitable community projects and organizations.

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