Growing up in the suburbs of Boston, I found joy in scrabbling up the rough branches of the Japanese Maple behind my house, pushing my fingers through cool mud beneath drainpipes, and watching slugs leave trails of slime on my knees. The natural world has always been a place of magic for me, where found shards of Coke bottles become Native American pottery and the tufts of tall grasses brushing my shins become a landscape of clouds. As an intern with the US Forest Service, I spent this past summer bouncing through the forest and turning over logs with children in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. My name is Rachel Kaufmann and I love sharing the joy and wonder of the natural world with children. We need the earth, not only for the life-sustaining resources it provides, but also for the peace and stability that comes from a connection to the land. With the SCA New Hampshire Corps, I hope to bring children that feeling I get when standing on top of Mt. Pisgah, surrounded by mountains in all directions.
