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Alumni Start Non-profits Around the World
By Alicia Giuffrida
Reprinted from The Leader, Summer 2002, Vol. 17 No. 3
Outdoor Creations
Dewayne Hudson was volunteeringas a tutor when he first noticed a bed of cattails behind theWashington, D.C. elementary school. “I said, ‘What is that?’ and went over to look.” Surprised by this encounter with the wild, he began to think about his students’ limited exposure to the natural world. “That,” he says, “is when the vision began to develop.”
Hudson’s vision was realized as Outdoor Creations, an organization that helps urban youth to form relationships with nature. “Lots of programs take kids out on a camping trip, take a picture, and drop them right back off in the city,” notes Hudson. “What we’re doing affects them all year round; kids have needs that need to be met over the course of the year.”
When Hudson’s idea for Outdoor Creations was first developing, he felt he needed a stronger knowledge base. He decided to take a Southwest Outdoor Educator course in January of 2000. “I learned a lot about expedition behavior, new teaching structures, and leadership skills–I have a strong, dominating leadership style, and I learned to balance that with other styles. I still use all of those things.”
Outdoor Creations’ first project was at Simon Elementary School in D.C. Students there have built their own wildlife habitat, which they maintain with Hudson’s help. They also go on after-school field trips to nature centers, museums, and parks to learn more about the wildlife in their own community. Hudson calls it Woodz in the Hood.
Says Hudson, “I want to help these kids to be unafraid of wilderness, and to learn from it even after they’ve grown out of the programs.”
That goes not only for Woodz in the Hood, but for Outdoor Creations’ work with older at-risk youth. “We’re doing team building, challenge by choice with adjudicated youth in group homes. They get exposure to something they’d never come into contact with, and we teach them to work together and respect one another.”
Right now, Outdoor Creations serves about 80 children in grades K through 5, and over 40 six- to sixteen-year-olds after school. One student writes, “Dear Mr. Hudson, Thank you for getting the bus for us to go to Discovery Creek. I enjoyed it. What I liked best was the hike. Thank you.” And another: “Thank you for bringing the wild animals to our school. What I liked best was the Barred Owl.”
Hudson hopes to keep expanding Outdoor Creations’ programs to reach more youth in more ways. “Our vision is much bigger than what we can do right now,” he reports. Even finding affordable field-trip transportation is a challenge, and Hudson works hard making connections with other organizations and searching for new sources of funding.
You can learn more about Outdoor Creations by contacting Dewayne at outdoorcreations@yahoo.com.
Alicia Giuffrida (SSPM-1 9/25/98) lives in Lander, Wyoming, where she climbs, writes and fosters dreams of starting her own non-profit one day.
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