UCLUELET — Families packed Ucluelet’s Big Beach Park on a recent morning to experience the Wild Pacific Trail society’s new children-focused interactive displays.
Two interpretive signs were unveiled — one about eagles the other about frogs — and four more signs are in the works.
“The goal with this project was to design an interactive and interpretive display that would engage children and add to their outdoor education experience at Big Beach Park,” said society board member Heather Grimshire. “A lot of the signage the Wild Pacific Trail has is for adults and we wanted something special for the kids that was just for them. And we hope the adults will learn something too.”
The new displays were partly paid for by a $2,500 grant from the Clayoquot Biosphere Trust in April 2012, $500 of which was leveraged from Vancouver-based Decoda Literacy Solutions.
The trust’s managing director, Rebecca Hurwitz, attended the event to see the educational experiences unveiled. “It’s really exciting because there’s no other interpretive signage in the region that’s geared specifically towards children in an outdoor setting and it’s a great way to engage families,” she said.
“The CBT is really focused on education in the most holistic sense so this is an opportunity to teach people about the natural environment and really connect youth to the place that they live through appreciating and understanding.”
The trail’s innovator and manager, Oyster Jim Martin, said the new displays will provide an educationally valuable boost to the experiences children have on the trail.
“They have interactive signs they can not only operate themselves but also learn from about the natural environment around them here on the West Coast . . . It’s just a terrific experience for everyone and we’re very thankful to the CBT for supporting us in this endeavour,” Martin said.
