Ideal/Bonton Nature Community Outreach

Our chapter will provide outreach to South Dallas citizens residing in zip code 75215, the Ideal/Bonton community. Educational outreach to this underserved community next to the Buckeye Trail and Great Trinity Forest through summer nature classes, public school learning experiences, senior education and through other community and educational centers.

Previous classes introduced a weekly nature topic in a classroom setting and was followed by a field trip to reinforce what had been taught. Project partners include TR Hoover Community Center, Educational First Steps School, and field trip sites at Trinity River Audubon Center, John Bunker Sands Wetlands, Dallas Parks Buckeye Trail and City of Dallas McCommas Bluff Landfill.

Volunteers assist with classroom and field trip activities.

Project co-leaders:

• Shelby Smith
• Rebecca Posten

2024 Activities – 27 volunteers with 547 hours of service performed

• Senior program at TR Hoover CDC was conducted January, February, March, April and May. We have discontinued that program as it was difficult to coordinate.
• 40 TR Hoover students attended summer camp on nature activities twice a week for 6 weeks with three field trips. 18 hours for each of two groups. Field trips were funded by TR Hoover and
• We added plants to the established pollinator garden that NTMN built in
• We participated with outreach at their Back-to-School event and Health Fair event.
• We will continue to build more nature education into this community in the future.