NHEE’d to Get Outside Grant program accepting applications through Nov. 20

New Hampshire Environmental Educators awarded over $12,000 this past spring to schools, environmental education centers, and non-profit organizations around New Hampshire. The awards will help engage students in hands-on environmental projects and outdoor field trip experiences.

Past grants have provided the much-needed funds to bus students on field trips to environmental centers, farms, state parks, historical locations, and geologic sites. Other funds have been used to bring environmental educators to schools to teach students about natural history, wildlife, and other environmental topics outside of the classroom walls.

The NHEE’d to Get Outside Grant began in 2018 and has more than doubled in growth this year thanks to the generous donations from silent auction donors, Concord UU Church and two anonymous donors prompting NHEE to open the grant program for a spring grant round, instead of their typical fall grant round.

Thanks to this bonus spring round, 45 6th graders from Plymouth Elementary School were able to visit Artists Bluff, Echo Lake and the New England Ski Museum on June 16. The lead teacher said, "A good number of our students seldom have opportunities outside of the Plymouth community to see the beauty of New Hampshire, to engage in healthy outdoor experiences, and to make broader connections with what we are learning in the classroom. This trip allowed all of us to come together as a community, all on the same playing field, so to speak, so that we could all have the same understanding and appreciation for nature, Earth’s changing surface, topography, hiking, swimming, skiing, and simply enjoying a charcoal-grilled hotdog by a beautiful lake in the White Mountains of New Hampshire."

“We are excited to see the level of support from our donors and the enthusiasm from schools and organizations applying for these funds to get kids outside,” says NHEE President Leigh Ann Reynolds. “New Hampshire has such a wide range of outdoor experiences and getting students to experience our state is one of the main goals of the grant program.”

The NHEE’d to Get Outside Grant program is now accepting applications for outdoor learning opportunities in 2023 and the deadline to apply is Nov. 20. If you are interested in helping more NH students get outside by donating to the NHEE’d to Get Outside Fund, contact nhee.org@gmail.com. NHEE is a membership based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization envisioning a NH where all people value and feel connected to our natural spaces, are environmentally literate, and act as social and environmental stewards in their communities. Learn more here: www.nhee.org.