INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The most festive place to be in Vero Beach Saturday night was the WinterGreen NightLights festival at the Environmental Learning Center, on the west side of the Wabasso Bridge. Children of all ages reveled in the opportunity to enjoy the nature preserve at night.
Madrigal singers sounded like angels as they entertained more than 500 people who came to do crafts, go canoeing, shop in the delightful gift shop, and enjoy nature under an almost full moon.
Visitors traveled from station to station, geocaching, making bird feeders out of cereal boxes, carving ornaments out of soap, wandering through the StoryWalk, having picnics, and listening to local musicians. The evening’s festivities were part of the ELC’s Membership Holiday Weekend.
Mangroves twinkled, thanks to the 25 strands of LED lights, colored and white, strung throughout the compound. Local public schools sent their choruses and instrumental groups to get the crowd into a festive mood. The evening under the stars was just what Santa Claus ordered to transform Scrooges into sugarplums.
Each year, the Environmental Learning Center opens its gates to Indian River County School District first, third and fourth graders, for fun, learning-filled days in the mangroves. Students learn early the message of reduce, reuse, and recycle, and then bring it home to make their parents more conscious of our environment, and their behavior on it.
Saturday night was active fun for all ages. The favorite activity of the evening was canoeing on the Indian River Lagoon.
“It was magical,” said local teacher Jill Birnholz, who was herding her three children away from the docks. “ I felt like I was in the bayou, like I was in a fairy tale.”
Santa, clad in a tropical shirt and red, fur trimmed terry cloth surf shorts, hung out in the Imagination Station, greeting well-wishers and answering curious children’s questions about why he wasn’t in the North Pole, getting ready for Christmas.
“I’m resting up,” he roared. “I’ve got a big week ahead of me.”
The gift shop did, and will continue to do, in the coming days, a brisk business, with generous parents and grandparents making lists of what their progeny thought was cool. How can you say no to educational toys?
Some children were thinking of others as they shopped.
“I got a necklace for my dad’s girlfriend,” said local fourth grader Loretta Porteous. “I got my friend a bead making kit and a constellation map.”
ELC Education Director Heather Stapleton, decked out in a Christmas light bulb necklace, was running from station to station, making sure everything ran smoothly.
“This has been an amazing event that has exceeded any and all expectations,” said Stapleton. “The whole point is to get everyone outside in nature. The weather has cooperated. We have amazing volunteers who make this event possible. We couldn’t have done it with out them.”
The Environmental Learning Center is an ideal vacation field trip spot to take visiting grandchildren, no matter what the weather. It is a fun, engaging, low-to-no-tech, holiday in nature that will appeal to everyone in the family. Call the ELC (772-589-5050) for more information on the upcoming Winter Break Camp Out.
