'Learning happens everywhere': Three educational trails opened at Pensacola parks

The grand opening of three new Born Learning Trails occurred on Monday afternoon at Highland Terrace Park.

The Born Learning Trails were created by the Leadership Pensacola Class of 2022 and ReadyKids!, formerly ECARE, which created the trails to help children with their communication skills. The trails will be opened in three parks: Chimes Way Park, Highland Terrace Park and Morris Court Park.

Leadership Pensacola (LeaP), a program of the Pensacola Chamber Foundation, helps to cultivate community leaders and help them learn about issues within Pensacola communities and find ways to solve them.

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This year's class, which was originally the class of 2021 but was delayed because of COVID-19, was split up to do service based projects that were pitched by local nonprofits. One of these nonprofits was ReadyKids!, an organization that maximizes students' potential for school readiness, especially for kindergarten. According to ReadyKids!, 58% of students entering kindergarten were not ready to learn.

These alarming statistics helped ReadyKids! cultivate its pitch by using the United Way Worldwide initiative called The Born Learning Trail, which are 10 interactive signs to provide an active learning experience for young children and their families. Leadership Pensacola, with the help of volunteers, will paint the sidewalks with different animals and objects, creating a trail for families to walk along. The intent is to help them create conversations with their parents by describing what they see and engaging with the world around them through.

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ReadyKids! Executive Director Ruthie Noel, who is also part of Leadership Pensacola Class of 2022, wanted to make sure that learning was happening outside of the classroom.

"The idea is that learning happens everywhere. You don't have to sit down with a workbook or scissors and glue and glitter to make learning happen," Noel said. "The Born Learning Trails are specifically designed for if you bring your kid to the park, don't just sit on your phone while they go down the slide a few times. Here is a way that you can have a meaningful conversation, and there's beautiful artwork on the sidewalk and a sign that guides your conversation about how to speak to your child, how to ask questions, or play games together."

Sara Lefevers, executive director of Greater Pensacola Chamber Foundation Team, said she and many others are invested in using projects like the trail to help better the community and improve the quality of life of those around us.

"The unique part about Pensacola is that all of our community leaders are very invested in the next generation," Lefevers said. "And so I think that today was a great representation of having different people from the city and the county and the business community come out to support, as well as some elected officials in their offices, and to really engage in encouraging the access to resources for our kids."

Christine Deckert, who is part of Leadership Pensacola Class of 2022, was the person in charge and created the blueprints for the trails. Deckert is a creative director and cofounder of Vivid Bridge Studios, where she used her experience of translating complex concepts, messages and ideas to different audiences.

When it was time to create the trails, Deckert created a blueprint to help those in her program who weren't as artistically talented. It was moments like this and working with others to complete their service project is why she enjoys being a part of this program.

"I really wanted to be able to understand how communities actually change," Deckert said. "How do you pull all the levers, push the buttons, speak to the right people, all in order to make progress towards shared goals. If they're not shared, how do you unify a vision so you can get everybody on board and really create the vibrant community that I know Pensacola is so passionate about making."

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: The grand opening of Born Learning Trails were unveiled on Monday