By Cory Metzler

Jonathan Dickenson State Park Trip

S’mores! It rhymes with outdoors!

Sitting beside the crackling heat of a campfire and guiding a piping hot chocolate s’more cautiously into your mouth was a highlight of the Sierra Club Inspiring Connections Outdoors (ICO) “welcome back to camping” weekend. After having spent a long 20 months in pandemic lockdown and event cancelation mode, the Loxahatchee Sierra Club ICO dusted the cobwebs off the camping gear and set off for an overnight adventure in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, just north of Hobe Sound.

The City of Greenacres youth program teens enjoyed the crisp blue sky. Tents were set up around the fire pit with picnic tables beside each tent. There was plenty of room for mingling and relaxing in the cool evening breeze.

Steering the Greenacres teenagers into the wild were ICO leaders Adam Mohammad, assisted by ICO volunteers Valerie Sebring, David McGrew, and Meryl Davids. This Thanksgiving weekend trip was headlined by canoe trips, a nature hike, and good times by the campfire. Oh, let’s not forget the wildlife count, with gopher turtles, a gator, and plenty of wading birds.

A very special thanks to the REI Company for supplying three much needed sleeping bags for our camping crew. One of the campers inquired, “When is the next camping trip?” Thanks to the support of donors and ICO volunteers, we hope we can get back out there soon. There would be no s’more without you!

Manatee Lagoon Trip

Man oh man, where are the manatees?

With much of the world on pandemic pause for the past 20 months, it was exciting to finally usher nine Greenacres Youth Program adventures and spend a December Saturday at Manatee Lagoon. Sierra Club ICO volunteers Fred Quan, Glen Laufer, and Sharon Halupa led the kids through the Manatee Lagoon’s nature center where handling reptiles and watching owl and gator feeding was on the agenda.

The connection with nature was made with the many fish, bird, and reptile species that the kids and volunteers got to hold or watch being fed. Some of the kids were lingering around the baby alligator oohing and ahhing over how cute it was! After a delicious lunch, the kids took a nature hike at Okeeheelee Park where gopher turtles, doves, iguanas, and other wildlife joined in on the act. 

While there were doubts and moments of worry, a manatee was finally spotted just before the excursion was over. In the past decade, the already endangered manatee population has fallen below 9,000. While boating collisions account for some fateful incidents, pollution-based toxic algae blooms are responsible for killing the sea grass that the manatees feed on. Over 1,000 manatees starved to death in the past year. Will the kids one day wonder what a live manatee looks like? The mission of the Sierra Club’s ICO outings is more urgent and necessary as the endangered manatee may soon become an artist rendering once live manatees are no longer present.

Connection is in our name. To support, volunteer, or donate to the Sierra Club Palm Beach County Inspiring Connections Outdoors, find us here:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PBCInspiringConnectionsOutdoors
Website: https://www.sierraclub.org/florida/palm-beach-ico
Email: Meryl.Davids@florida.sierraclub.org