From Our Executive Director, Kylie 'Koala' Galliani

Hello Kylie,

It has been a blast being back in the world of PEEC! I was fortunate to work with an amazing staff this season, including some returning naturalists and a few new team members. During our five weeks, we also had a combination of both new and returning schools. I was so impressed with our staff's ability to continuously give their best to each group, and I loved watching so many students (and adults!) learn and have fun while exploring our coast.

I am excited to learn and grow from my experiences this season, and can't wait to see what our spring season brings!

Though our fall season was short, we were able to have 5 schools from 3 different counties! We even were able to get a new Fort Bragg school, Three Rivers Charter School, to PEEC. With a 5-week program, we had 18 days of hands-on learning, 52 adults participating as chaperones, 179 student participants, and made countless memories!

Thank you to all the teachers, chaperones, parent drivers, bus drivers, and other school staff for your continued support and choosing to attend PEEC this fall!

Our Team!

Our main three naturalists this fall were Willow, Brook, and Woof (pictured on the left). Former PEEC Naturalist Firefly also returned to us this season for a few of our larger groups!

We also had a new cook, former PEEC Board President Julie 'Pumpkin' Castillo. She learned quickly and provided such delicious meals for students, chaperones, and staff!

This fabulous team worked incredibly hard to educate students and keep camp running all season long! HUGE thanks to all!

We are hiring naturalists and a camp cook for spring 2024! Interested or know someone who might be interested in joining our team? Click the button below or share this email!

Driving Forward with PEEC!

We are so pleased to announce that with the help of PEEC supporters (that's you!), The Mericos Foundation, and Mendocino Coast Children's Fund, we were able to finish our Driving Forward with PEEC fundraiser!

This means that we will soon be able to replace our beloved camp truck with a more reliable vehicle that has a much lower carbon footprint. We are very grateful for all who donated and shared our fundraiser!

Stay tuned for more updates!

PEEC is proud to be a recipient of a grant from the Community Foundation of Mendocino County from the 2023 Environmental Fund. This grant will help us update our current curriculum to include more climate change information and local indigenous knowledge, and will also provide funding to help bring 8th graders from our local Fort Bragg Middle School to PEEC!

There are plenty of ways for you to donate to PEEC for Giving Tuesday! You can now schedule automatic donations monthly or annually, in addition to a one-time donation!

General donations can help us offer scholarships to low-income schools and students, and help keep our program running!

Don't want to donate electronically?

Please mail checks to PEEC at:

PO Box 73, Fort Bragg, CA, 95437

Scientists recently discovered more about the anatomy of sea stars (or starfish). We often refer to them as having arms or rays, but evolutionary biologist Laurent Formery now says they are "best described as just a head crawling along the seafloor." To learn more about this study, click the button below to read the article!