COLUMBIA BASIN — For the second year, the Kootenay Savings Community Foundation has supported the Columbia Basin Environmental Education’s (CBEEN) Wild Voices for Kids program. Enabling teachers to give their students unique educational experiences, the program brings community expertise in environmental, cultural and heritage topics into classrooms throughout the Columbia Basin.

Including a variety of in-class and field-trip options where even bussing costs are paid, the database of curriculum-linked presentations gives teachers in both public and private schools access to local expertise through Wild Voices’ Community Educators, or CEs.

Community Educators are local subject experts who are driven to share their time, knowledge and passion with students in their communities.  Teachers can choose from a variety of presentations, from learning about bees and dressing up in beekeepers’ suits, to a trip into Kootenay National Park to learn about the area’s geology.  Even in the winter, classes are regularly taken outside, exploring local forests on snowshoes; the presentations available are as diverse as the population of the Basin.