FOR A GOOD CAUSE ... Judith Gielow

Jenifer Ragland

There may be one thing Judith Gielow loves more than teaching: nature.

That’s why she has been a volunteer at the Environmental Nature Center in

Newport Beach for more than 20 years. Aside from opening young minds to

the wonders of nature, Gielow also gets to be one with the earth when she

gives tours of the 2.5-acre center.

“In the outdoor classroom, we try to get across how everything is

linked,” she said, citing the recent controversy about Newport Harbor

High School students taking bugs from Upper Newport Bay for classroom

assignments. “Maybe they will realize that thousands of kids traipsing

through an ecosystem isn’t the best thing.”

Gielow describes her job -- she’s an “all-purpose” volunteer -- as doing

everything from delivering hand-made thank-you notes to those who worked

at this year’s Fall Faire to taking notes at meetings and doing laundry

(she decided to take home and wash a perfectly good T-shirt with the

center’s logo on it that had inadvertently been used as a rag.)

But her favorite thing by far is the tours. She especially loves to take

Boy Scouts through the center. Her roots as a Girl Scout helped draw her

to nature. She taught elementary school for many years before retiring to

the outdoor classroom.

“As an educator, to interpret nature is really important to me,” she

said. “I’m fortunate to have the support of my family so I can teach for

free.”

Gielow has a definite gift for making the elements of the nature center

interesting and exciting.

Starting with the area that has been re-created as a desert, she asks,

“What are the ingredients of a desert? I used to think the desert was

just sand, rocks and cactus, but it’s a lot more, and it’s taken me all

these years at the nature center to figure that out.”

She said she always tries to teach kids about how Native Americans used

natural resources.

“The desert is a pharmacy and a hardware store,” she said.

Gielow then points out a man-made stream and how the surrounding trees

are trying to “get their feet wet,” with their roots poking out from the

creek bank.

Gielow said her mission as a volunteer is to plant the seed in the minds

of young people that caring for the world around them is a stewardship.

“Our lives depend on nature,” she said. “I think the most important thing

for children is knowing they are part of the ecosystem and part of this

life cycle.”

FOR A GOOD CAUSE features the people who do good in the community. To

submit story ideas, call (949) 574-4233 or send e-mail to

dailypilot@latimes.com.

F.Y.I.

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ORGANIZATION: Environmental Nature Center

WHERE: 1601 16th Street TO GET INVOLVED CALL: (949) 645-8489