“Clean water is essential to the whole ecosystem. If you don’t have clean water, of course, it affects all the life that’s associated with that water.”

Carolyn Schuyler is the founder of Wildrock, an organization that hopes to promote nature play for health with the idea that when children play in nature they become future stewards. After stepping aside as the director, Carolyn was called to take more action to protect our environment. “The problems are so big that Wild Virginia really does need volunteers to be able to have the expansive impact that the mission calls for.” Carolyn says we all need to be stepping up, it can’t just be people working for a nonprofit. It’s got to be all of us understanding what we can do as citizens.

She is a recent graduate of the Clean Water Advocates Program, an education program to train a small group of dedicated volunteers (“Advocates”) to support Wild Virginia’s efforts to protect Virginia’s water quality.

Carolyn says that, “This program is really great because it’s casting the net broader, and allowing people that want to help to learn from the expertise of the people that have been doing this so effectively at Wild Virginia.”

Like Wild Virginia, Wildrock tries to get children and families interested in nature play, believing that they will become stewards of the environment they love. Located in the Blue Ridge foothills, Wildrock offers expansive mountain views and an immersive nature play experience in a diverse landscape including forests, meadows, streams, rock formations, and climbing hills.

Carolyn believes that the more we learn about the interconnection of everything, the more important it is to make the changes where you can. “It’s important for the people that are doing the hard work to know that the larger community is there to help and support. It hopefully will help Wild Virginia staff to feel appreciated and know that the community really wants to get behind them and their efforts.”