December 1st E-NEWSLETTER

Give NCW is LIVE!

The Give NCW Campaign through the Community Foundation of North Central Washington is live NOW through December 31st. Visit their website to donate to one or more non-profit organizations, including WRI! Any donation made through Give NCW to WRI will also be matched by the Icicle Fund.

Programs

Fall Youth Program Fun Continues

In the past two weeks, WRI held a 'power hour' Field Day with 1st grade students at Peshastin-Dryden Elementary, After School Programming with Mission View Elementary, and the Traveling Naturalist in the Classroom program in Brewster and Chelan. See some highlights below!

1st Grade Students were Brave Detectives!

First grade students from Peshastin-Dryden Elementary were Nature Detectives as they searched and gathered opposites in nature and looked for beanie babies camouflaged in their school yard. They were very brave detectives as some of the classes had the first snow as an additional challenge! They also built habitats for animals to live in with the snow.

4th and 5th Grade Students become Naturalists!

WRI's Traveling Naturalist in the Classroom program visits 5 different schools in Orondo, Manson, Chelan, Brewster, and now Rock Island! The WRI Education Team will visit every 4th and 5th grade classroom in each school - that's 24 classrooms! Each classroom will be visited about 7 times throughout the school year. WRI is finishing up the first visits to each classroom. In the last two weeks, the WRI Education Team visited Brewster Elementary and Morgen Owings Elementary in Chelan. In their first lesson, "What is a Naturalist?", students learned what it means to be a naturalist and the importance of keeping a nature journal with their observations.

Place

Join a WRI Committee or the Board of Directors

Are you interested in being more involved with the Wenatchee River Institute? Are you passionate about connecting people, communities and the natural world? WRI is looking for more committee members and Board Members to join the team! WRI committees include: Finance, Events, Programs, Facilities, and Equity, Inclusion, & Diversity (EID). If you are interested in joining, email Randee and more information will be sent to you.

Greater Leavenworth Museum Opens New

Story Basket Exhibit

Exciting changes are happening to the First Peoples Exhibit at
the Greater Leavenworth Museum. The first of these changes is the installation of the exhibit of story baskets by local tribal member, Julie Edwards. Julie is a member of the Colville Confederated Tribes and a descendant of the Wenatchi, Moses Columbia, Entiat, Nez Perce, and Yakama tribes. Her book Weaving; Baskets and Stories, which contains photos of all nine baskets in the basket exhibit, will be available in the Museum store and proceeds will support the Museum's p'squosa (Wenatchi) exhibit. Check it out and read more about it here!

WRI's Impact on Local Youth Education

WRI was mentioned in a video of a Cascade High School senior. Carly said she loved her hands-on science field trips to Barn Beach Reserve. WRI's impact on youth goes beyond the present, it impacts their future, too! Check out the video here.

Thank you to our donors from the last 2 weeks!

Many of these donors are participating in our End-of-Year Match! Their donation is being matched by the Icicle Fund.