Root & Trail

10/29/2026

10/28/2026

Want to spend a couple of hours each week having fun, building relationships, and making a meaningful difference for local kids with varied abilities?

Come play with us! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mFWb0zssC3k76_WphdosSmQhv6RJcrzd/view?usp=drivesdk

Root & Trail is looking for regular volunteers to join our learning communities for children ages 6–12.

Depending on the role, you might:

- explore, build, create, wonder, and play alongside kids
- help a child who needs extra support fully participate in the group
- spend meaningful time outdoors and in community
- gain hands-on experience with child-centered, nature-based, and neurodiversity-affirming approaches
- use your own skills and interests to make a real difference in a child’s week

We’re especially looking for Volunteer Activity Assistants who genuinely enjoy kids and can stay engaged, curious, playful, and attentive.

Our regular volunteers commit at least 2 hours per week for a full program term. Hours would be on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday afternoons.

We provide orientation and training, and we arrange and pay for required background checks.

You don’t have to be an expert.

You do need to care about kids, be willing to learn, and be ready to show up and be part of what we’re building.

Ordinary people who help in simple ways can make an extraordinary difference. 💚

Interested, or know someone who might be a great fit? Message us!

10/27/2026

Friendship takes time.

Not just time in the same place, doing the same thing side by side.

Time to talk, play, explore, work things out, and simply be together.

Research shows that acquaintances need many shared hours to become friends, and close friendships require even more.

The kind of time matters, too: informal, voluntary time together helps relationships grow in ways structured settings often cannot.

Building a fort together can cultivate friendship more deeply than sitting side by side in a lesson.

The nature study matters. The skills matter. The activities matter.

But so do the long stretches in between, when kids are laughing over something ridiculous, navigating disagreements, and showing up again the next week.

We don’t just put kids in a group and hope community happens.

We give it time to grow. 🌱🌳

How and where did your deepest friendships grow? Share in the comments! ⬇️

10/21/2026

One of the greatest privileges of this work is getting to know children over time.

Not just who they are when they arrive.

Who they are becoming.

When you spend months together, you learn what comes easily to each child

and what their “hard things” are

and the most helpful ways to scaffold, support, and encourage each of them.

And then, sometimes, you get to see it:

The pause that wasn’t there before. 🌱

The words they couldn’t find before. 🌱

The risk they wouldn’t take before. 🌱

The apology they weren’t ready to make before. 🌱

A little more awareness. A little more confidence. A little more ability to navigate something genuinely difficult. 🌱

And, yes, sometimes, five minutes later, the may be struggling with the very same thing again.

That doesn’t diminish what happened.

That doesn't erase the deep root growth under the surface.

Growth isn’t a straight line.

These kids inspire me so much! 💗

Not because they get everything right, but because I get to watch them keep growing.

It’s at the very heart of why Root & Trail exists.

10/21/2026

See you guys there!

WHAT'S FRIDAY?!? IT'S TRUNK OR TREAT!!!

Come join us for our 5TH ANNUAL Trunk or Treat at 7 Senses 🥳🎃👻

✨️ Inclusive games and activities, an even bigger inflatable obstacle course than last year, face painting, the best treats (allergen-free options), and a chance to hang out with your favorite therapy team and make new friends! ✨️

Bring your friends, family, and ghoulish grins!

🍁 The waiting room will be available for calm down breaks.

10/20/2026

This weekend!

The dome is almost ready! Are you!? Join us next weekend for our 🎃 Open to all, potluck, fire and dancing!

10/19/2026

You want your child to have time outside.

You want them to have friends they see regularly.

Friends they actually spend time building friendships with, not just participating alongside in organized activities or sports.

You want them to build forts, make up games, wander around looking for interesting things, get bored, figure something out, disagree, work it out, and come home dirty.

The thing is, for a lot of us nowadays, somebody has to make all of that happen.

Find the other kids. Compare schedules. Pack the stuff. Drive somewhere. Supervise. Drive home.

And make sure you still have dinner figured out and other tasks done. 🫠

Kids in our groups get at least one day a week in, with minimal work on your end.

Of course, we can’t manufacture friendship.

But we can create some of the conditions that give it room to grow:

🍁the same children returning week after week
🍁plenty of time together
🍁a shared outdoor place
🍁interesting things to do
🍁freedom to play
🍁supportive adults nearby.

Sometimes all you really need to do is give them somewhere they can keep showing up.

10/19/2026

Root & Trail is still in its earliest days as a nonprofit, and we’re inviting our community to help build the foundation for the trail ahead.

Anyone who makes a gift before the end of 2026 will be recognized as a Founding Donor—one of the people who chose to invest in this community from the beginning.

Every gift, at any amount, helps make possible the kind of childhood and community we want more children to experience: belonging, connection with nature, and long, unhurried time to grow alongside their peers.

Learn more and give here: https://givebutter.com/foundingdonors

10/15/2026

In a good flow with Math? 🔔🔔🔔🕚 Time for Language Arts, hurry up!

Writing an exciting story and need to finish the good part? 🔔🔔🔔🕚 Time for lunch. Line up! Now!

Get out the door! Soccer practice is soon!

Are there margins somewhere in your child's life?

Space around the gotta-do's?

Some place on some day where they don't feel rushed to the next thing?

Do YOU have any margins?

I hope so 💗

They're invaluable.

10/14/2026

Caddisfly larvae says, "peek-a-boo!"

"Science is about cultivating a perpetual condition of wonder in the face of something that forever grows one step richer and subtler than our latest theory about it."
Richard Powers