SEQUIM — You want to reconcile your family’s way of life with your desire to help heal the Earth. So where do you start?
With young people in your own town, Don Wilkin of Sequim believes.
Wilkin, a professor of human ecology who studied and taught at universities across the West, will lead a morning discussion group for parents in the Sequim area, based on “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet,” a course created by the Northwest Earth Institute of Portland, Ore.
Slots still open
The course is designed for eight to 12 people, and a few spaces are still open in the sessions to start next month, said Cynthia Martin, director of the Parenting Matters Foundation, which is sponsoring the program.
Participants will be able to pick up their course books Aug. 3 to finish the reading for the first discussion Aug. 10, said Patsene Dashiell, a Parenting Matters staffer.
The seven sessions will run from 10 a.m. to noon every Monday through Sept. 21 in the First Teacher room at the Sequim Community School, 220 W. Alder St.
The class will be an exploration of how parents can develop their children’s connection to nature, how to create meaningful family time and ways to limit the influences of advertising and consumer culture on kids.
Nature connection
“Children have an affinity for the natural world, and as Rachel Carson says, ‘an inborn sense of wonder.’ As children spend more time indoors, they connect less to the wild places in their neighborhood. How can we give children the opportunity to connect with the natural world?” the “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” Web site asks.
Wilkin’s discussion group will give parents a chance to talk about that question and share ideas on others:
• With the average child seeing an estimated 20,000 commercials every year, what steps can adults take to lessen their impact?
• As many schools serve high-fat and high-sugar foods for breakfast and lunch, what is the link between diet and learning, and how can adults encourage children to include healthy foods in their meals?
• With children’s schedules growing busier by the week, how can adults help them find balance between activities and the unstructured time that’s often the source of creativity?
• As television and computers become an ever-larger part of children’s lives, how can parents create a healthy media environment at home?
Teaching kids key
Wilkin, who spent 40 years studying community sustainability — how people can avoid using up their most precious resources — said teaching young people a new, or perhaps old-fashioned, set of values is key.
“Consumerism can’t be the ultimate value,” he said. Instead, “quality of life, enjoying one another and enjoying the planet without tearing it apart” are what he hopes will replace the “buy stuff, use it up and buy more” culture.
Wilkin brims with energy and is anything but “dry and dusty,” said Dashiell.
Seed is planted
The seed for his Healthy Children course was planted in June when Wilkin came to the First Teacher library to read to children and engage parents in a discussion on healthy living.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Wilkin said of the course, adding, “I’ll be doing this again and again.”
So if a parent is unable to enroll in the first session, he hopes he or she will return for a future course. “Nobody needs to worry about not getting in,” Wilkin said.
Parents can also start their own discussion groups with help from the Northwest Earth Institute’s materials available online at www.NWEI.org.
Martin is also enthused about the ideas that will grow out of the “Healthy Children, Healthy Planet” sessions.
“It’s like everything else, if we start early [with kids], we stand a chance,” she said.
City with values
Martin believes Sequim is already a city that values simple pleasures, community gatherings and children. And First Teacher’s programs — activities for very young kids, a lending library and educational newsletter for parents — are, like the Healthy Children, Healthy Planet program, aimed at creating a sustainable society.
Martin hailed Wilkin for leading the discussion groups as a volunteer “because he so strongly believes in all of this.”
While there is no charge to participate in the discussions, the Healthy Children, Healthy Planet course book costs $20. During each session, child care will be available for $5 per child.
For more details and to reserve a space, phone the Parenting Matters Foundation at 360-681-2250 or e-mail pmf@olypen.com.
First Teacher, meantime, faces the elimination of its Sequim School District funding this fall.
Martin is applying for foundation grants, and a volunteer committee is planning an Aug. 22 benefit dinner and auction with a keynote speech by Bette Hyde, director of the Washington Department of Early Learning at the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula.
The organization also welcomes donations addressed to Parenting Matters, P.O. Box 3323, Sequim, WA 98382.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsula dailynews.com.
