Celebrate Earth Day by Volunteering in Nature
Campbell Creekside Center Offering Volunteer Opportunities for Earth Day Weekend

[April 20, 2018]   LINCOLN - What better way to celebrate Earth Day than by volunteering to give nature a helping hand?

That’s exactly what will be possible at Lincoln College’s Dr. G. Dennis Campbell Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education, just north of Lincoln.

To celebrate Earth Day this year, the Center is seeking volunteers to participate in a variety of projects to enhance the Creekside center and prepare it for the coming season. Volunteer activities will be offered both Saturday, April 21, and on Earth Day Sunday, April 22, weather permitting. Volunteers are welcome anytime from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. each day and need not stay for the entire day.

There will be a free lunch of hotdogs, chips, and drinks around the council ring/fire pit at noon on both days.

Individuals, families, and groups (such as scouts, civic and church groups) interested in seeing and participating in the progress of the programs and facilities at Lincoln College’s Creekside Outdoor Center for Environmental Education are invited.

Hands-on opportunities include:

• Barking and improving forest trails

• Removing dead vegetation from the parking lot pond

• Pulling weeds and removing dead stems from flowerbeds

• Building frames of the new Peoples of the Past Boardwalk

• Drilling screws while attaching planks on the Peoples of the Past Boardwalk

• Planting wildflower seeds in seedling trays

• Potting seedlings

• Transplanting plants to the forest garden and pollinator habitat

• Assembling and painting pre-cut bird houses

• Planting the vegetable garden in the Insectarium

• Clearing and making brush piles in the woodland garden

• Cutting bank stairs for creek access

• Cleaning out the Log Cabin after a hard winter

• Painting/applying stickers of nature designs on the Little Free Library box

• Pulling the invasive garlic mustard plant in the forest

• Photographing nature

• Cleaning up the archaeological dig pit

• Walking around the property and having fun

Participants should come in outside work clothes and bring gloves. Adults are encouraged to bring a charged hand drill if interested in working on the Peoples of the Past Boardwalk. When completed, the boardwalk will be an accessible interpretive trail that will transport visitors hundreds of years into the past. As persons walk along the boardwalk, they will also walk back in time from the present.

Dr. Dennis Campbell will be leading volunteer activities when the Campbell Creekside Center at Lincoln College celebrates Earth Day this weekend.

The first phase of the project is about 800 feet and will cover 800 years of history, showcasing pioneer and Kickapoo and Mississippian Native American cultures. Over the coming years, the timeline will be extended further back into time and may ultimately reach back 8,000 years.

Creekside is approximately 4 miles due north of Lincoln, off of County Rd 2000N halfway between County Road 1100E and 1215th Ave (Google map address is 1234 2000th St., Lincoln, 62656); from Co Rd 2000N take the gravel road (at the large Creekside sign) north to the Center.

For more information, contact Creekside Director, Dr. G. Dennis Campbell, 217-735-7260; [e-mail]

[Mark Gordon
Public Relations and Media Manager
Lincoln College]