Environmental Volunteers get state award Environmental Volunteers get state award (January 07, 2004)

A nature program that lets school kids munch pickleweed by the Bay and gather acorns in the foothills has won California's top environmental honor.

On December 1, the Environmental Volunteers (EVs) received the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in Children's Environmental Education.

The award recognized EVs' Kids-in-Nature program, which connects children with their environment through volunteer-led classes in school, and field trips to nearby woods and shore.

Last year volunteers taught nature to more than 10,000 students in more than 90 schools in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

In the 32 years since the EVs was founded by the late Karen Nilsson of Ladera, more than 300,000 students from kindergarten to eighth grade have gone through the hands-on experience of meeting nature.

For information, call Ashley Cole at the Environmental Volunteers, 961-0545; or go to www.evols.org.

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