Volunteers wanted for MiaFest

Would anyone be happy to help at the event below? It would be great if someone from the society can give them a hand.

From: Kirstin McIntosh 

Email:<kirstin@miaswood.org.uk>

Message:

“Hello there,

I am the co-founder of a children’s environmental charity, Mia’s Wood (registered charity number 1169919), which is located on a small 2 acre newly planted woodland site just outside Little Horwood (the entrance is on the Little Horwood Road towards Great Horwood.)

We hold an annual children’s nature festival, MiaFest, and we are always looking for naturalists and knowledgeable folk who might be willing to speak to children to teach them about different aspects of nature.  I have found this quite challenging so far, as many of the big groups provide online resources rather than hands-on experience. This year, MiaFest will be held on Saturday 23rd September 12 noon-late and I’d love it if we could find a way to share your members’ nature knowledge with our little MiaFesters.

http://www.dfmanagement.tv/category/wildlife-presenters

MiaFest is a free children’s nature festival where we have 500 people who come along to enjoy a magical day of fun together.  There are all kinds of nature crafts and activities, as well as music, food and experiences.   Here’s a link to our website www.miaswood.org.uk and you can find MiaFest here, as well as some of our activities.

Mia’s Wood is a children’s environmental charity which has been set up in the memory of our daughter, who died unexpectedly at the age of 13 months.  Even at that age, she loved the outdoors, and we want Mia’s Wood to be a way for children to experience the wonder of nature.

We have two Forest Schools using Mia’s Wood, and we hold regular events at the site to maintain the little woodland and nature activities.

For MiaFest, we have previously had Kate from BBOWT and her team to support us, but otherwise, it has proved very challenging to have an educational element around nature for children.  We know the Parks Trust quite well, but they always have an event clash with MiaFest, and otherwise, groups like The Woodland Trust are not able to support us as so much of their material is online learning only.

Ideally, I would love someone who could help us to engage children in observation skills – perhaps something as simple as insect identification and why they are different, or even learning about different types of trees and leaves.  I’d be very happy to discuss further if it would help.