Danzl’s dream comes true as Environmental Educator Supervisor at Vermilion County Conservation District
By FRED KRONER
Lara Danzl’s life has gone full circle.
One of her favorite childhood memories was spending a week at Kennekuk County Park as part of a children’s outdoor school program.
At the time, Lara Kazakaitis was a fifth-grader at Diamond Middle School. Her class participated in the outdoor school program sponsored by the Vermilion County Conservation District.
“The things I did that week, I remember to this day,” Danzl said. “It was amazing how many things can live under a dead log.”
That program, as well as an influential high school teacher at Oakwood (Norma Anderson) helped determine Danzl’s path in life.
“My high school biology teacher, the way she taught made it so interesting,” Danzl said. “I took four years of biology in high school.
“I loved botany and zoology, life cycles and how organisms play a role in our environment.”
By the time she got to college at Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston, Danzl had her direction clearly mapped out.
She majored in environmental biology and returned to Vermilion County to begin her professional career.
In September, 1998, she was hired as an environmental educator and volunteer coordinator at Kennekuk County Park, near Danville.
“I knew I was not cut out for a desk job,” Danzl said. “I knew I wanted a job outdoors and, luckily, this position came open.
“I’ve never regretted it.”
Danzl found herself back in charge of the outdoor education program which has now been in existence for 48 years, and the one she participated in as a child.
“I got to teach my two kids when they were in fifth grade,” she said. “I love getting to teach and share my knowledge and passion about the environment with other people.
“I hope I get to retire from this job.”
Her teaching workload has been reduced in 2020 more than in any recent year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken away what was traditionally a four-day-a-week program that department leader Danzl and other educators oversaw.
“We offered it to fourth- and fifth-grade (classes) and, before COVID, every school in Vermilion County came to Kennekuk or Forest Glen (near Georgetown),” Danzl said.
“We had the same students Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we would teach in our classroom outside. We would do habitat and ecology studies, rolling over logs and looking for decomposures and doing marsh studies.
“We offered it in the spring and the fall, and were busy 16 or 17 weeks a year.”
The classes would arrive around 9 a.m., bring a sack lunch, and stay until 2 or 2:30 in the afternoon.
“We would explore and hike after lunch,” Danzl said.
The coronavirus has changed the landscape for the outdoor educational opportunities in 2020.
“Our first group (from St. Joseph) was coming in mid- to late-March,” Danzl said. “We haven’t been able to host the class this year.”
When the restrictions were extended into the summer, Danzl and her colleagues took action.
They put together what Danzl called “summer camp in a bag,” which included enough crafts and materials to cover five days’ worth of activities.
“We sold out, had a waiting list and put together more bags,” Danzl said.
They wound up producing more than 100 bags.
“We felt it helped the parents and kids get through the summer with not a lot going on,” Danzl said. “It felt good to provide something for the kids.”
The outdoors program is geared to students in fourth- and fifth-grade, which Danzl considers the ideal age to study the outdoors.
“Fourth- and fifth-graders are able to comprehend the basics of the eco-system,” she said. “They are able to remember different tree and plant species.
“They still have that youthful curiosity and are not afraid to ask questions. They have energy, they want to discover and don’t care if they get dirty.
“That’s the perfect time to give them a base of knowledge.”
Danzl hopes the lessons learned aren’t just ones to fill the moment, but ones which ultimately have carryover value into adulthood.
“We hope to make them responsible stewards for when they get older,” she said. “If you don’t understand how amazing our environment is, it makes it difficult to care when you’re an adult.
“It’s important to understand how things connect in our environment.”
There are times she is able to recognize the impact the outdoors program is making.
“I’ve written letters of recommendation for former outdoor kids who want to go on and study this,” Danzl said, “and I think that is fantastic.”
She occasionally has to deal with misperceptions.
“The environment we have here is not scary,” Danzl said. “There is nothing that will harm or attack or eat you other than mosquitos.
“If you leave spiders and snakes alone and respect them, they will respect you.”
Danzl and the other educators have tried to fill the void this fall during a time when in-person visits have been curtailed.
“We’re doing a lot of online outreach,” she said, “creating videos and posting them on YouTube and sharing them with teachers.
“We’re doing virtual visits and we will appear live and talk about animals.”
One school has signed up and Danzl is optimistic that others will, too, as word starts to circulate about the virtual venture.
For Danzl, her teachings don’t center around doing the same thing the same way all the time.
“I try to learn new ways to teach or an educational aspect to get information across in a fun way to help people retain it,” she said.
One school – a second-grade class from Little Hearts and Hands in Urbana – has made the journey over to Kennekuk this fall. Danzl is confident there will be more in-person arrivals and is hopeful they will happen sooner than later.
“I tend to be optimistic overall,” she said. “I know schools want to be cautious and careful, but we will have school kids out here again.
“I know they will come back, I just don’t know when it will be, but we’ll be ready for them.”
And waiting for them will be that former fifth-grade student from Diamond School, who cherished hiking and spending time as a youngster at Kennekuk and Kickapoo State Park so much that she has found a way to make a living from it.
