Parks in Focus Celebrates with Photo Exhibit, Reception November 9 NCCA-Artsplace

Parks in Focus Celebrates with Photo Exhibit, Reception November 9 – On exhibit through December 31.
NEWAYGO COUNTY, MI — Fourteen Newaygo County middle and high school students took part in a six-day immersion taking them to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and Seney National Wildlife Refuge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in August.
The results of the experience, a partnership between Udall Foundation’s Parks in Focus program and TrueNorth Community Services, go on display November 1 at Newaygo County Council for the Arts’ NCCA-Artsplace. To celebrate the efforts by the 10- to 16-year-olds who took part from TrueNorth’s TrueMentors, Camp Newaygo and Project FOCUS programs, a public reception is slated 6 p.m.- 7 p.m. November 9 at NCCA-Artsplace, 13 East Main Street in Fremont.
The students connected with nature through photography, environmental and conservation education, outdoor experiences and creative expression with the project, which has been going on in Michigan every summer since 2007. They took 10,798 photos during this summer’s trek, and their best 14 images are on display in the NCCA-Artsplace exhibit through the end of December.
“Introducing kids in a hands-on way to the great outdoors provides them with learning opportunities they just might not get otherwise,” said Lisa Daniell, director of TrueNorth’s Volunteer Resource Center of Newaygo County. “While the program instructs them on basic photography and the Great Lakes’ biodiversity, flora and fauna, it’s just as much about building their confidence and a sense of adventure.”
TrueMentors is a mentoring program targeting 5- to 14-year-olds, pairing adult volunteers with youth in communitybased matches and high school and middle school students with elementary and middle schoolers in site-based matches. Project FOCUS is an out-of-school program with adventure and academic enrichment activities at schools in Baldwin, Hart, Hesperia, Muskegon Heights, Walkerville and White Cloud. Camp Newaygo offers girls’ residential and co-ed day summer camps in addition to environmental education, team-building, adventure-based and youth leadership programs.
The Parks in Focus program was funded by a Fremont Area Community Foundation grant.