As a kid did you ever dream about being outside while sitting in the classroom? At schools like Discovery Wilderness, your dreams as a kid have come true! Discovery Wilderness is an alternative option to homeschooling. The school is completely outside, with the exception of during harsh or severe weather conditions, and gives kids a chance to connect and learn about nature while actually being in nature!
Mathew Meals, credit manager for GreenStone capital markets department, has been involved with this school for a couple years. After his daughter started attending, he was asked to help build classrooms for the kids.
"I like to create things with a chainsaw and turn logs into wood projects. The school found out my enjoyment of doing this, and I've been recruited, Mathew smiles and says. I've made log tables. I will take a large log, split it by hand with a chainsaw and then sand that down and make outdoor tables for them so they can utilize it for their classrooms for nature journaling and those type of things. I've also done some weaving looms for them, scales out of logs for them to weigh things for different math projects, and then my wife and I have also built different obstacle courses with either trees from our property or trees from on site."
Backpack rack for the classroom
Not only is Mathew creating spectacular wood projects for the school, but he is making sure it done at little to no cost for the school. I want this school to be available regardless of anyone income level. "If I can do some of this at no cost or very little cost and provide the classroom experience that they'll thrive in, I feel I'm doing my part to hopefully keep the cost the school has to charge to cover overhead low and allow more families the opportunity to explore something like this."
Classroom table and chairs
After he has created the various wood projects for the school, a team of volunteers work together to help set up the projects. Mathew uses this time to talk about the great impact that agriculture has on society.
"I am able to share some of the things our customers do that they may not see in the mainstream media, or other places. They are getting a different perspective to think about when it comes to all both large and small scale agriculture, he shares."
One of GreenStone's CoreFour Values is Getting Involved and we're proud of employees like Mathew who supports the communities we serve through a variety of avenues, including getting involved in programs like this. "I appreciate GreenStone providing staff volunteer time. We get to impact folks that may not necessarily ever become a GreenStone customer, but has huge impacts on the consumer choices that do impact our customers long term," Mathew concluded.
Learn more about our community outreach and engagement efforts by visiting Outreach | GreenStone FCS.
