“Where are we going, Forest Fridays?” A familiar coo of excitement echoes from her children as they enter the car.
Educator, SELT volunteer, and now SELT Outreach staff, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Franceschini, has a profound love of nature and is passionate about connecting children with the outdoors. Lizzy recognizes that when kids develop a love for the land at a young age, both childhood development and the environment itself benefits. Earning her Masters in Education at the University of New Hampshire and spending most of her career as a middle school science teacher, Lizzy is uniquely qualified to follow this passion. When she first became a mother, she looked for a community of parents with a similar drive and joined Hike it Baby when her first child, Sam, was only four months old.
Hike it Baby (HiB) is an international non-profit organization that aims to encourage children through the age of five to spend time outdoors. After joining, Lizzy was quickly asked to become the Seacoast Chapter branch ambassador of HiB and worked diligently to recruit more families to join the group. In 2019, SELT’s Executive Director Brian Hart suggested that SELT and Hike it Baby collaborate, and the two organizations planned an Earth Day hike geared towards children. With talented educator and fellow SELT volunteer, Kim Cote, Lizzy supervised the child-led hike which became the first of many successful collaborations between SELT and HiB. Following the birth of her twins, Toby and Hadley, Lizzy transitioned HiB to new leadership and shifted to teaching part-time.
With more time and flexibility in her schedule, volunteering with SELT was a natural next step for Lizzy and in the fall of 2021, she came up with the concept of Forest Fridays: a regularly occurring event that families can depend on which would foster a sense of consistency and serenity amidst the turbulent times of COVID-19.
These events “allow children to develop their sense of place within the natural area, and allow parents and children to develop a sense of community as many of the same families come week after week,” as she says. While these experiences are a blast for the kids, they are important for parents too. Forest Fridays bring parents together, forming friendships and making everyone feel a little less alone during the parenthood experience.
Forest Fridays are particularly unique because they are child-led field trips. Not only do they encourage children and families to get outside, these excursions allow children to find inspiration and creativity in nature.
“It is pretty amazing to see the discoveries, challenges, and games the children develop when we step back and observe them in nature,” she says.
By refraining from telling the kids what to do and granting them uninterrupted time to explore, she allows them to find their own ways to appreciate the outdoors and connect with each other. Lizzy also comes up with special events such as the “Teddy Bear Picnic,” to find new ways to connect even more children and their families with SELT’s work. Allowing kids to bring their stuffed animals on their adventure adds an additional element of security that helps draw more families in and create a deeper sense of community.
Though it can be hard to manage a group of children so young, Lizzy says it is often the highlight of her week.
“My work with SELT allows me to put my passion into action,” she says. “My soul lights up when I see the look in a kid’s eye seeing frog eggs up close, watching children running and hollering down a trail together, seeing the smile of success when a child climbs a large rock or pulls themselves up onto a branch. For me, this is joy in its truest sense.”