Shaver’s Creek Renovations a Well-Deserved Upgrade for a Community Resource

The year was either 1969 or 1970. I was a sixth-grader at Radio Park Elementary school. They split our combined classes in half and assigned us our two and a half days. We were heading to Stone Valley to spend half the week at the lodge for a hands-on experience, learning about the outside and coming together as a group. Outdoor School.

I can remember parts of it like it was yesterday. Sleeping quarters upstairs – boys on one side, girls on the other. We ate family style. The pancakes were the best I have ever had. My counselor’s name was Cheryl Yonkers. She snuck us outside one night and we laid on our backs and she gave us a lesson on the stars. I can still point out some of those constellations even now.

Several years later, as a recreation and parks major, I served as an Outdoor School counselor. By that time it had evolved to sleeping in cabins. I had four girls assigned to me and they enthusiastically made it through a cold week in November that saw both snow and rain. Shaking them out of sleep in their warm sleeping bags to get ready for the day was easier said than done. It was four days of instruction, games and learning. The counselors stood and waved as the students (at that time from Mifflin County) turned and waved from the windows, some with tears streaming down their faces. Long before the days of Facebook and social media, I remember getting cards and notes from my campers for weeks after saying it was “the best week of my life.”

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, the Penn State-affiliated nature center and experiential learning center located on the other side of Lake Perez from Stone Valley and founded in 1976, is 7,000 acres of trails, woods, learning stations and outdoor experiences. Outdoor School and so much more happen just over the mountain from State College.

Things are happening at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center this year as it undergoes a multi-million-dollar renovation and upgrade of the facilities and program service areas. After 40 years, it’s time.

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center and the services and programs they provide straddle so many of Penn State’s missions. The center and courses are used for credit courses for students in five academic colleges including Health and Human Development, Communications, Engineering, Agricultural Sciences and, of course, Education. From teaching students how to teach in the environment to providing courses in team-building facilitation and adventure recreation leadership, Shaver’s Creek is Penn State’s nature lab.  

The mission of service is evident in their school programs. “Road Show” trips where they take birds of prey from the raptor center to schools and community agencies, and other off site experiences provide learning opportunities for the community. Programs like summer day camp and Outdoor School are dual focused  – teaching the young participants and teaching the student teachers how to manage kids and build that love for the outdoors in others. They hold special events like the Maple Harvest Festival and the Children’s Halloween Trail.

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center facilitates teambuilding programs for sports teams, corporate groups and classes. Finally, internships, research collaborations, and the science related to topics from sustainability to environmental resource management round out a few of the foci of Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center.

I could write a whole book about the impact that the “semester at Shaver’s Creek,” called SEED (Student Engagement and Experiential Discovery) semester, has had the students who enroll. Nineteen credits, similar to a semester abroad but immersed at Shaver’s Creek, is career changing for those kids. They come back changed in so many ways.

The Aurora freshmen orientation programs through Shaver’s Creek bring incoming freshmen to campus a week early to then leave for backpacking experiences out west and up north, and in the city of Philadelphia doing service learning. The research shows that students who engage in these programs remain engaged with the university and have higher rates of graduation than students who participate in other orientation programs.

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center is a community resource that we all need to get behind.

From the ideas and programs generated by Corky Potter and those first group of enthusiastic faculty and researchers back in 1976 to the more than 50,000 non-credit visitors, 25 full time staff, nearly 1,400 students earning credits toward graduation last year, it’s time to bring the facilities into the millennium as well.

The facilities at Shaver’s Creek have had only limited updates since they were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp back in the day. There is a need for more instructional space (inside and outside), office space, upgrades to the raptor center and upgrades to the antiquated and energy inefficient heating and air conditioning systems. In keeping with the environmental focus of the center, new features are being added like solar energy, improvements to trails and footpaths, and a continued focus on sustainable features and local use (building materials, zero waste practices, etc.).  

If you ever were a kid, had a kid or wanted to be a kid who learned about the constellations lying on your back, under the stars at Shaver’s Creek, I urge you to help out.

The folks who operate Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center are my colleagues and my friends. We collaborate on classes and work together to develop engaged learning experiences for students. I have seen up close and personal the impact they have on so many – students, children, community members and colleagues alike. I have not met a group more committed to our environment and to teaching others about sustainability and taking care of this Earth that we love. Although the center is closed through 2017, many of the outside features continue to be accessible to the public.

Please consider making a donation to the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center so that the services that we all love and appreciate can continue. It’s in the stars.