Forest Preserves of Cook County 2024 Fall Brochure

16 The Forest Preserves offers a free transportation option for schools, community groups and nonprofits looking to experience nature and give back. The Volunteer Voyager program provides a bus to pick up and return your group for a litter clean-up or ecological stewardship day! “We don’t want transportation to be a barrier to participating in volunteering in the Forest Preserves,” says Emily Russell, a volunteer program coordinator with the Forest Preserves. “Volunteering allows you to experience the forest preserves in a more intimate way. You are walking in areas you wouldn’t normally walk, and you notice things as you engage with the land.” Fall is the Perfect Time to Ride the Volunteer Bus Litter cleanups are self-guided and can be undertaken by all ages at almost any forest preserve. Russell says that fall is the perfect time, given cooling weather, fewer bugs and the beauty of the season. Alicia Quintero, a Spanish teacher at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago, relished the opportunity last May to take her homeroom students to a litter cleanup on their annual community service “Sweetness Day.” Many had never visited the Forest Preserves before. “They were so enamored of the beauty,” Quintero says. “It was just very peaceful. That’s something they took away, that there are these oases in the city. They saw people 16 The Forest Preserves offers a fre transportation option for schools, com unity groups and nonprofits looking to experience nature and give back. The Volunteer Voyager program provides a bus to pick up and return your group for a litter clean-up or ecological stewardship day! “We don’t want transportation to be a barrier to participating in volunteering in the Forest Preserves,” says Emily Russell, a volunteer program coordinator with the Forest Preserves. “Volunteering allows you to experience the forest preserves in a more intimate way. You are walking in areas you wouldn’t normally walk, and you notice things as you engage with the land.” Fall i t to Ride the V lu t Litter cleanups are self-g i can be undertaken by all ages at almost any forest preserve. Russell says that fall is the perfect ti e, given cooling weather, fewer bugs and the beauty of the season. Alicia Quintero, a Spanish teacher at Walter Payton College Prep in Chicago, relished the opportunity last May to take her homeroom students to a litter cleanup on their annual community service “Sweetness Day.” Many had never visited the Forest Preserves before. “They were so enamored of the beauty,” Quintero says. “It was just very peaceful. That’s something they took away, that there ar these oases in the city. They saw people