The Cape Fear Botanical Garden secured a $500,000 endowment in mid-June. The Cumberland Community Foundation provided the funds to expand educational programs for kids. The Cumberland Community Foundation Kids in the Garden Fund will help the 80-acre site continue its youth outreach and add new offerings.
The endowment will pay for another staff position. This means more classes. Sheila Hanrick, the director of programming, visitor services, and Marketing, said classes fill up fast. Waitlists are common.
“We are pretty close to being close to capacity with the current staff that we have, and so once a class fills up, we have to do a waitlist,” Hanrick said to Spectrum Local News. “We see that happen a lot. We see that happen with our summer camps, we see that happen with our homeschool classes and our after-school classes.”
Between 3,500 and 7,000 children visit each year. They come for camps and field trips. Programs serve students from preschool through high school.
Chris Hoffman, CEO of the site, said educational outreach spans ten nearby counties. Field trips bring some students to the gardens, while educators travel to schools for others.
“They’ll take some of the activities that we’ll have and they’ll bring the outdoors, indoors,” Hoffman said, according to Spectrum Local News. “So that’s where they’ll have a classroom and usually the teachers will help participate in it. But they’ll just run the kids through a variety of different camp activities that we have for those day activities.”
Hoffman said many children who grow up in cities experience nature for the first time here. Students discover where food comes from. They interact with animals.
Tara Feimster, a volunteer and rising senior, began visiting at age 2. Now she helps lead camps. One camp ignited her interest in archeology as a possible career.
“I also love just seeing people smile, all the kids come and make friends and smile to each other, and just have fun,” Feimster added.
The gardens opened over 35 years ago. They sit at 536 N. Eastern Blvd. in Fayetteville. This summer, about 15 camps will run, ranging from day camps to week-long sessions.
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