Sharing Love of Orchids with Kids
Sandy Stubbings
W
hat can the IPA do to interest the youth of today
in orchids? That is the question that has been consistently addressed by the Education Committee of
the AOS. I am highlighting two of the resulting projects in the hope that members and societies can choose to use
them and expand upon the ideas presented. One idea is a Girl
Scout Interest Project and Patch. The other is a set of activities
for children at orchid shows.
Kids’ Corner
For any orchid lover that is involved in Girl Scouting, we have
developed an Interest Project and an iron–on Patch. Both are
available for your use by contacting Sandy at sstubbings@
comcast.net. Since we are just beginning to explore possibilities, we are eager to work with Scout personnel to modify
and/or develop the requirements for issuing the patch.
Several leaders who have contacted us have had very good
project ideas for girls to earn the patch. Many requirements of
the American Orchid Society Interest project can be fulfilled
at an orchid show. One excellent idea is to have Girl Scouts
help with local shows to earn patches. Perhaps you can combine both the Girl Scout and the Kids’ Corner projects by having Girl Scouts volunteer to supervise the “Kids’ Corner” at
your shows.
We hope affiliated clubs will copy these activities, eventually
creating their own “Kids’ Corner”. To that end, I will be writing
a series of articles that will provide instructions for making/
setting up an activity that can become part of a Kids’ Corner.
The Houston Orchid Society and SWROGA have successfully
pioneered such a table in 2012 and 2013 shows so all activities
are tested and proven successful.
With this issue, I will begin with an overview of the activities we included in our table and I will give instructions for
constructing an activity for the Kid’s Corner each successive
issue. Please feel free to use these ideas in your own planning.
Our goals included promoting youthful interest in orchids,
involving children in the show more directly, providing educational opportunities, and rewarding children in a meaningful
way that encourages interest. We wanted to avoid meaningless busywork. For example, flowering plants were provided at
the drawing station, Encouraging children to draw what they
saw and they will be evaluated for information they included.
More information on these criteria will be incorporated in the
detailed instructions to be provided in future articles.
To begin, you need a table and volunteers. It is possible to
place the Kids’ Corner next to the Society’s Table and have
Wilcox siblings on scavenger hunt.
Jada Wilcox with Blue Ribbon. Photos by Judith Neufeld
Girl Scout Interest Project
Phalaenopsis | Fourth Quarter | Volume 23 | 2013
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