Urban youths get outdoors education through nonprofit group

Instead of sidewalks, they trekked along a dirt trail. Instead of climbing stairs, they scrambled over boulders. On Dec. 6, the nonprofit Las Vegas Inspiring Connections Outdoors took a group of students who previously knew only city life on a hike in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

The Las Vegas chapter is a subgroup of the Sierra Club and takes urban youths on outdoors excursions. On this Saturday, 13 students from West Preparatory Academy, 2050 Saphire Stone Ave., hopped out of a rented transport van in front of the Red Rock Canyon Visitor Center. They were guided by volunteer hike leader Barbara Gerhardt.

Betty Gallifent is the chairwoman for the group’s fundraisers and said taking children outdoors helps them appreciate the beauty of nature and better understand water conservation.

“In urban areas, everything they see is engineered,” she said. “It takes you back to the core of the Earth.”

Inside the Visitor Center, the students checked out the displays before heading outdoors. One wall described aspects of the Mojave Desert. A desert wash wasn’t a place to do laundry, Gerhardt told them, but a gully created by rushing waters formed when the baked desert couldn’t absorb rain.

“It’s like that TV commercial showing a flooded street,” she said.

Other displays came with more explanations, such as basket weaving and how pinon pine resin made them waterproof.

Gerhardt took the students to the end of the walkway for the panoramic view of Red Rock Canyon. She flung out her arms.

“This was Walmart for the Paiutes, ” she explained. “This was where they got their food, their water, their shelter, their clothing.”

The group then took the van to Lost Creek for a hike. There, Gerhardt proceeded to turn the trail into an outdoor classroom, pointing out plant life and explaining how Native Americans used them. Many plants had multiple uses from medicinal to the mundane.

Along the trail, pictographs were spotted. The children whipped out their iPhones.

“It looks like pi,” student Alexes Garcia said of one.

How would the students normally spend their weekend?

“Right now, I’d be in my house, bored, taking care of my sister, and that’s it,” Stephanie Chavez said. “Being here, it’s really fun to see nature and learn how in the old days they used to do it.”

“I’d be cleaning my house, and after that, I’d just be bored,” Imani Blake said. “It’s neat to know what it was like before everything was here.”

Teacher chaperones said they noticed a difference in children after they took part in LVICO outings.

“We have students who had never been outside of the Las Vegas area,” said Chanel Brown, a sixth-grade teacher. “They thought we were out of state. … These trips strengthen them in their academics. It strengthens them in their home life because they tell their parents about these things they can drive to, and it’s, like, $7 a car to get in.”

At the end of the hike was a surprise — a stream poured off a high ledge, sprinkling onto rocks below.

Gerhardt said her goal was to help urban, lower-income youths develop self-esteem and an awareness of nature so they could be good stewards of the environment.

She said on the hikes, students make “the most incredible comments, like, ‘Wow, this is better than the Adventuredome,’ or ‘I want to bring my mother here,’ or ‘Where are the buildings?’ It gives you insight into how important (this program) is.”

The Las Vegas chapter of ICO was formed about three years ago. Last year, it took children on six excursions, and this year, nearly 20. It is looking for volunteers.

For more information, visit tinyurl.com/ouhgegh.

Contact Summerlin Area View reporter Jan Hogan at jhogan@viewnews.com or 702-387-2949.