Touch of Nature Environmental Center serves Southern Illinois University Carbondale as an outdoor laboratory for experiential learning, as a field site for research, and as a provider of therapeutic recreation, environmental education, outdoor adventure, personal and interpersonal development programs, and conference services.

The mission of Touch of Nature Environmental Center is to enhance learning, promote professional development, encourage personal and interpersonal development, and increase environmental awareness by providing high quality leisure education, outdoor, educational, research, and experiential programs, and conference services and facilities to the University and the larger community.

In 1949, Southern Illinois University President, Dr. Delyte W. Morris, envisioned the establishment of an outdoor laboratory to support the educational mission of the University. In 1951, under the guidance of its first director, Dr. William H. Freeberg, Little Grassy Camp began operating on 150 acres acquired from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The initial program, now known as "Camp Little Giant," has the distinction of being recognized as the nation's first university-affiliated residential camping program for people with disabilities.

Today, Little Grassy Camp is known as Touch of Nature Environmental Center. It lies on 3,100 acres of primarily forested land located on the shore of Little Grassy Lake—eight miles south of Carbondale and the University campus, and is bordered by Giant City State Park, the Shawnee National Forest, and the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge.

CARBONDALE(TheSouthern.com) - She is going to turn 7 in a few weeks, but Katie Schultz's wish on Monday was not birthday related. "I need more birds," she said loudly as teachers and counselors assembled pictures from magazines and journals of mammals for children like Schultz to look at, select and paste. The little girl had already pasted a neat picture of seagulls. She correctly identified the red bird she had just pasted as a cardinal. And now she was eyeing a trumpeter swan. When she finishes her task, the pictures she has selected and pasted will be laminated into an eventual placemat.

Schultz's work was part of opening day for Eco U summer nature day camps being hosted by Southern Illinois University Carbondale at Touch of Nature. Thirty children were divided into three groups and they were taught creative ways to view nature and the ecology though fun hands-on activities. "Tuesday we will be studying birds and Wednesday we will be looking at reptiles and amphibians," said Lauren Wyatt, a camp instructor who graduated in December from SIUC with a degree in zoology about this weeks Eco U program, "Animal Adventures - In Every Nook and Cranny, Animals are Amazing."

There are four sessions daily that children rotate through - Artistic Expression which is arts and crafts oriented; Rousing Recreation that allows for games and movements; Love to Learn which deals with facts; and Simply Sense-Ational that gives children a chance to experience nature with their senses, said instructor Christa Zimmerman.Children also paddle at the lake twice a week, said Kate Hellgren, program coordinator of environmental education at Touch of Nature.

Photo: By CHUCK NOVARA / THE SOUTHERN
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