Kinnkinnick Club

The members of any community invariably share a set of core values - particularly around the issues of children and nature. They are bonded by hope for themselves, their families, their friends, and the communities within which they live.
Richard Louv, "Last Child in the Woods"

Kinnikinnick Club, a Group of Kids that Love Nature and Strive to Make a Difference in Their Community and the World

The Kinnikinnick Club is an after-school environmental service-learning club for children in grades 4-6. As a member, your child will have the opportunity to participate in service projects, gardening, and field trips. The leaders of the club are Michele Altherr, Branden Willman-Kozimor and Selvi Viswanathan.

School Year Activities

During the school year, members are encouraged to work together and use their talents and enthusiasm to power projects that make a difference to the environment. Highlights of the Kinnikinnicks' projects include:

1. "Plastic Bag Free Los Alamos" Campaign: This project began in March 2008 and targeted shoppers, theater-goers and school children with a message to use reusable shopping bags instead of plastic. The Kinnikinnicks started by researching the issue and creating a traveling exhibit to educate people about the problems associated with plastic bag use, as well as, solutions to the problem. Next, they enlisted the help of our two local Smith's Food and Drug Stores and gave training presentations to the staffs of the stores on the importance of offering reusable bags to shoppers. Then they reached out to kids, and on Earth Day 2008 they distributed reusable bags and informative flyers to over 1700 elementary students. The Kinnikinnicks followed this up by creating a public service announcement, "Reusable Bags Save the Day," using clay animation. It aired in our local Reel Deal Theater. The members also held a bake sale and reinvested the funds they raised in reusable bag stickers. In the fall of 2008, the Kinnikinnicks distributed these stickers to downtown businesses to post as reminders for their customers to use their reusable bags. During 52 weeks of the campaign, one of our Smith's Food and Drug Stores reported that they gave out 865,170 fewer plastic bags. This equated to 432 fewer cases of plastic bags in our landfill. Wow, that's a lot for one store!
2. Polar Bears: During the winter 2008-2009 holiday season, the kids in the Kinnikinnick Club elected to adopt the polar bear from the WWF as one of their service learning projects. In addition to selling baked goods outside the grocery store, the kids sang environmental carols, and talked with shoppers about the polar bear. They raised $250, which they donated to the World Wildlife Fund for the protection of polar bears.
3. Earth Day Projects: For Earth Day 2009, the members prepared an Earth Day gift for all the elementary students in Los Alamos. Students received a package of sunflower seeds and a flier about the ways that sunflowers help wildlife. An additional fun project was the making of a short film that advertised the Earth Day Festival. The Kinnikinnicks acted as various animals from the Tree of Life, filmed and edit the piece. Finally, they worked over many months building up layers of paper and painting beautiful paper-mache bowls to be auctioned off at our annual fundraiser to benefit PEEC's children's programs.
4. Nature Trail Guide: The Kinnikinnick's created poems and activities for a children's guide to PEEC's nature trail.

Summer Activities

In the summer, the members become gardeners and grow organic vegetables. They learn about sustainable agriculture, companion planting, composting, invasive species and seed collecting. Last fall, the children made salsa from the garden and held a harvest party.

Kinnikinnick Club's Name

Kinnikinnick is an evergreen shrubby ground cover native to the Pajarito Plateau, as well as many other places throughout the world. Though diminutive in size, kinnikinnick is perennially fresh, interesting and hopeful like our children.

It hugs our landscape with its thick, shiny leaves and is reminiscent of a time when people were closely connected to nature. Native Americans collected its berries for food and used its leaves to make a cleansing lotion. Early travelers out west bedded down on its cushiony foliage. Even bears took advantage of the kinnikinnick and dined on its red berries in the autumn.

Though widespread, few can identify kinnikinnick and is one small reason why those of us at PEEC seek to reconnect children with nature in all its wonders.

Further Information

For more information about K-club activities or how to join, please contact Center@PajaritoEEC.org or call (505) 662-0460.