The East End’s only state-of-the-art natural history museum, South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center (SoFo), has recently received a grant from an anonymous donor, which will support their new after-school South Fork Environmental Learning Education Program. The educational series began on September 17, 2014, and the three-month pilot program with the Sag Harbor Elementary School is scheduled to end on December 20, 2014.
“We are extremely grateful to our donor for funding this important program,” SoFo’s Executive Director Frank Quevedo said. “Giving back to the East End community is an important part of our mission, and it is essential that SoFo is supported as we work to educate and engage children and adults to preserve our fragile ecosystem. We are very pleased to offer these after-school classes at no charge to our local students.”
The program is set to expand next year, and classes, which will include students from various East End schools, will begin on January 14, 2015 and run throughout the spring semester. During the program, students will study marine life on a wrack line bay discovery walk, learn about plants, animals, and habitat ecology on a woodland trail walk, and will discover the effects of hurricanes and rising sea levels on a beach walk.
“We look forward to offering this program to adults as well in the near future,” Quevedo said. “We are also excited to present at SoFo during the spring of 2015 a Climate Change Symposium, which will be open to the public, as a component of the South Fork Environmental Learning program.”
(SoFo is located at 377 Bridgehampton Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton. For more information, visit www.sofo.org.)