It’s Only Natural
It’s Only Natural
Reflecting on Wildwoods history at 25 years and considering the next 25.
Okay, I’m making the assumption that I don’t have to explain Wildwoods to you. I mean, you’re on the site, so… welcome!
If you don’t know me, my name’s Dwain. I’m the guy who started Wildwoods. This year, we are celebrating a milestone anniversary. We’re 25 years old. A quarter of a century.
A good time to reflect and take stock.
Whenever we do that at Wildwoods, looking back to our beginning, we can’t help but remember that there’s a kernel of deep sadness in the organization’s DNA.
It was a beautiful spring afternoon in April, 1999. I was in Ojai attending a backwoods medical training to become a Wilderness First Responder.
At lunch, we heard the shocking news about two very disturbed young men at Columbine High School in Colorado, introducing America to the nightmare of school shootings that has become a tragic constant in our culture.
And even though I was nowhere near Columbine that day, that event changed the course of my life.
Back in the Day: Me (before gray hair) with the late, great Tom LaBonge.
At the time, I was transitioning out of a career in the film and television industry, going back to school and volunteering at a local park, providing nature hikes for school groups. (Mid-life crisis, anyone?)
The tragedy at Columbine sparked a discussion between me and the other volunteers at the park about how we might expand the boundaries of the traditional environmental education that we were doing, and weave in a thread of activities to address human relations; how kids feel about themselves and get along with each other.
Over the following few months sitting around a kitchen table in the Hollywood Hills, Wildwoods was born. And for the next 10 years, we operated out of my garage. (Thanks for parking on the street, Ellen (my wife)!)
John Lennon’s Birthday
Wildwood’s first day of programming was on October 9, 2000. It would have been John Lennon’s 60th birthday, which I learned as I searched for a weather forecast on the radio as I drove west on Sunset Blvd., headed toward Temescal Canyon Park. The sky was as dark and ominous as I have ever seen in Los Angeles. It looked like it was going to open up and pour.
I had started Wildwoods with an $800 inheritance from my dairy farmer grandfather and I had used that to book a ropes course for a group of fifth grade students. If it rained, our entire budget and this first program I’d been working toward for months would be a bust.
I remember the disc jockey started talking about Lennon’s impact on our society, not just musically, but on so much of American culture, in fact the culture of the entire world. And then he played the song Imagine.
“Imagine all the people…”
And I knew then that everything was going to be all right.
In fact it was more than all right. It was an amazing day with those students and it set us on the path that we continue to forge: helping youth and families immerse in the outdoor experience as a framework for human relations.
We learned so much in those early days. One important lesson came from Dr. Barbara Moreno, the teacher who invited us into her classroom to conduct that initial pilot program. Barbara introduced us to systems thinking and the work of Fritjof Capra, the founder of the Center for Ecoliteracy.
Capra’s theories on how nature’s ecosystems serve as a metaphor for human society are at the center of our DNA and core values. We believe that understanding and emulating the interdependent relationships that exist in a healthy ecosystem can help us improve our daily lives, create more resilient families, and build more sustainable communities.
We have always tried to “practice what we preach” and operate Wildwoods around applying lessons from nature. During the Coronavirus pandemic this point was really driven home. As has been the driving force for all organisms in nature, we realized that our path forward boiled down to three points: Adapt. Evolve. Survive.
Getting Out of the Way
In addition to the lessons from nature, one of the things that I take care to remind the team at Wildwoods is that, although we spend a significant amount of time and resources in facilitating outdoor experiences for the families we serve – writing curriculum, organizing materials, planning activities, scheduling transportation – sometimes our most important job is to just get out of the way… Get out of the way and let folks have their own personal, individual experience with nature. Because that’s why we’re there in the first place.
Now, I’ve decided it’s time for me to take my own advice. To get out of the way, make space, and invite new perspectives, experiences and growth for Wildwoods.
One year from now I will adapt, evolve and survive beyond my post as Executive Director of Wildwoods.
Happily, I will be doing so with a sense of contentment and the knowledge that the tree of Wildwoods is strong, our roots are deep, and the stewards guiding this organization are good, smart, caring people.
For the past year, our board and I have been thoughtfully and intentionally planning this transition. An important part of the process, of course, is to find a successor. The stakes are high, and there will be exciting news on this at our 25th Anniversary Celebration on May 2, that I know you won’t want to miss.
Capturing and Sharing the Story
Over the coming months, I’m going to share a series of posts about how it’s going and what we’re learning along the way.
One thing I’ve learned so far is that it’s never too soon to start thinking about executive transition and the ripples it will set in motion. There are a bunch of nature-based ways to think about this torch-passing process, (Cycle of life, spring renewal etc.) and I’ll be exploring some of them in my future communiques. Every decision and move we make now will influence the next chapter of the Wildwoods story.
Another thing I’ve learned is that I don’t have to do this alone… and it would be silly to. Fortunately, we have the partnership of wonderful organizations like the Executive Service Corps, which is helping with our new strategic plan, and the NExT (Nonprofit Executive Transition) Program from Coro Foundation/NSI (Nonprofit Sustainability Initiative), a cohort model that works with organizations and transitioning executives. We are blessed with an abundance of resources and support. And as a stakeholder and supporter, I’m hoping that you will lean in, too, and get involved.
Graceful Transformation
In future posts, I’ll let you know ways to join me and Wildwoods on this exciting journey, which will include an exploration of my “essential question,” and maybe you’ll think about identifying one for yourself.
The idea of an “essential question” is a concept my wife introduced to me in January. Instead of making New Year’s resolutions (which most of us never keep), why not commit to asking ourselves an “essential question” all year long? What’s the one thing that I most need to learn about over the next 12 months?
I’ve been pondering on it, and I think I’ve figured out what mine is… I’ll let you in on it in my next blog post.
‘Til then… let’s all get outside!
P.S. As anyone who knows me can attest, I am a big fan of fun and games. So, I’m adding a little “gamification” to this blog series. The prize this time around will be a pair of tickets to our upcoming 25th Anniversary Celebration on May 2 at the Lewis MacAdams Riverfront Park. The challenge: I worked in the film and television industry before Wildwoods. The first person to correctly name a TV show or movie I worked on will win the tickets! Email your answer to events@wildwoodsla.org.
