The HCEF Endowment Fund provides a transportation allowance of up to $300 for educational field trips. These grants have enabled agencies to transport their children and moms to destinations in greater Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania as well as further afield: to Lake Erie and Niagara Falls; to Washington, D.C., Altoona, and Ohiopyle.
The children and moms residing at one of HCEF's partner homeless housing agencies learned that venturing outdoors with Pittsburgh's Venture Outdoors at Lake Elizabeth in Allegheny Commons and West Park on the Northside was like four field trips in one:
opportunities to go kayaking, learn to cast a fishing rod, make Gyotaku fish prints, and discover how many different kinds of trees provide shade in the park. (Those in the know are aware that Lake Elizabeth is only two feet deep.)
When asked what they had learned, the children listed: how to steer a kayak, that kayaking is fun, the names of the trees and how old they are, how to fish "right." A mom learned she could have fun with all of her kids together.
Favorite parts of the field trip for the children included: kayaking, fishing, picking leaves, "doing a different thing," seeing the condors, the swings, and "walking with mommy."
Moms had their favorite parts as well. For one mom it was watching her daughter climb to the top and go down the slide on her own. For another, "seeing my children's smiles."
Return to Mini-Grants
(9/8/11)
