NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — July 25, 2014 — When children participating in the Trips for Kids summer program first come to its headquarters at the Victory Park Warming House, Bernadette Souza takes them to the pond at the side of the house, filled with fish and turtles.
There, she tells them to close their eyes and tell her what they hear.
Children strain to listen, confused when they are met by silence, she said. Then they realize the answer is just that: they hear nothing.
"Kids nowadays come in with so much noise," from video games, television and the like, Souza said.
But the Trips for Kids summer program, which takes in a different group of 13 children or less every week for seven weeks, takes them from the inner city and introduces them to nature.
An incentive to get children to join is that children ride their bicycles to the different spots they visit, said JoAnn Tschaen, who founded the program more than a decade ago.
"It is the biggest carrot there is," she said, adding riding bikes is popular with the kids.
Read the full story the New Bedford Standard-Times