Louv-ley Day in Charleston

Rich Louv, author of Last Child In the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder (Algonquin Books 2005), spoke on Earth Day Sunday at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Charleston.

His topic was "Leave No Child Inside West Virginia." About 70 people attended the lecture and reception, sponsored by OVEC and the Unitarian Universalists Fellowship. Kathryn Stone had these reflections:

"As someone who grew up on a farm in semi-rural New England of the 1930s and 1940s, who roamed the woods picking lady slippers and the fields picking wildflower bouquets, who sat under a lone pine tree on a hill reading on a hot summer day, who defiantly sat on the sun porch while lightning flashed, loving the drama and excitement of it, who listened to the frogs croaking in the creek and picked wild blueberries in a nearby swamp, who played hopscotch, hide-and-seek and kick-the-can with neighborhood kids and cooled off with them in the local brook (really a mud hole) and who had a tree house for a refuge, I truly relate to Richard Louvs plea to restore to our children the joys and benefits of exposure to nature and the wonderful out-of-doors."

OVEC extends a big thanks to our co-sponsors: Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, WV Sierra Club, WV Highlands Conservancy, WV Citizen Action Group and WV Environmental Education Association.