Nearly three dozen Ansonia preschoolers helped the Ansonia Nature Center celebrate its first John Adzima Nature Education Day on Monday while learning about the plants and animals featured at the center.
The program included everything from picking and planting strawberries to getting a close-up look with a box turtle to enjoying some homemade strawberry shortcake with whipped cream.
Organizers said the event was a perfect way to honor the memory of Adzima, a lifelong city resident and former assistant superintendent of schools who died last January.
Nature Center Director Donna Lindgren said Adzima was instrumental in the development of the Redwing Pond Preschool program, writing grant applications and lobbying city officials for support.
She said the Nature Center wanted to honor him — and what better way than with a special nature education day for the city’s preschool youngsters to enjoy?
“John Adzima loved to garden,” Lindgren told the children during an introduction shortly after they arrived at the Nature Center. “He always had the biggest and best tomatoes of anyone I knew.”
Beyond honoring Adzima’s memory, Monday’s event gave kids an important, personal look at nature.
“It’s really important for these kids to have hands-on experiences,” said Diana Brancato, School Readiness Coordinator for the City of Ansonia.
Brancato said the 34 children who visited Monday attend the city’s all-day preschool program headquartered at Ansonia Middle School in a wing that is coincidentally also named for Adzima.
Several students who are members of the middle school’s Human Relations Club joined the outing as guides.
The children split up into separate groups to stroll the center’s nature trails and meet some of the turtles that live there, including Quincy, a tame box turtle raised in captivity.
One of the volunteers told the children that Quincy was found soon after hatching, and when the staff naturalists noticed he had five legs they realized he didn’t stand a normal chance of survival in the wild, so he was raised at the center instead.
Lindgren said the program went very well and the weather, which was overcast with occasional sprinkles of light rain, cooperated well enough.
“If the sun had come out in this muggy weather, we might have been in trouble,” she said.
Brancato said the Ansonia Nature Center staff and volunteers frequently bring owls and other animals to the preschool at the middle school to show the children, but it is a treat to bring the children to the center to see things that aren’t portable, like its food and flower gardens.
“Many of these children haven’t had an opportunity to explore the Nature Center before,” she said.
“We learned about plants,” said Jayda, age 5, one of the preschoolers.
She and her classmates described the strawberries as juicy, sour and red.
“We picked them and ate them,” added Adrian, age 3.
Thamar, age 5, said she had never seen a turtle before and thought they were “pretty.”
Some of the children’s parents helped chaperone the visit, including Heather Hall, who accompanied her 4‑year-old son, Christopher. She said Christopher loves animals, especially the turtles.
“It’s educational for all the children to know about the animals,” Hall said.
Adele Falco, a teacher at the preschool, echoed the sentiment.
“As they’re walking around, they get to hear the birds and see the flowers,” she said. “It impacts their learning to be able to experience it.”
