Born Learning Trail Opens at Rec Complex

Kids from several area day care centers were the first children to experience the new Born Learning Trail at the J.B. “Red” Owens Recreation Complex.

The trail officially opened Thursday morning with a ribbon-cutting.

Born Learning Trails are interactive, playful and educational, designed to support early learning in children.

The trail consists of outdoor learning games and activities that children participate in with their parents or caregivers.

The trail will feature 10 different stations designed for children up to age 4.

Born Learning Trails are part of United Way Worldwide's public engagement campaign to foster early childhood education and create early learning opportunities for young children.  The Trail's learning games help build pre-literacy skills that are critical to school readiness.

The Born Learning Trail, the first of its kind in Pickens County, is a project of the 2013 Leadership Pickens County class.

“We know that learning is fundamental and our youth here is certainly our future,” said Leadership Pickens County Class member Bruce Benson. “On the trail today, you're going to see words like imagine, create, pretend, learn, laugh, listen, play, think and various other words that really epitomizes our youth.”

Benson said class members achieved consensus on the project quickly.

“It was unanimous when we talked about something for the kids and something for the youth,” he said. “It's an opportunity to give back. We've been very fortunate in our roles and our jobs that somebody took time to show us and help us get to the next step.”

Daby Snipes, Special Project Coordinator for Safe Kids Upstate and Leadership Class member, welcomed the kids to the trail and introduced them to Buddy Bear.

“Our job is to keep you from having to go to the hospital, to prevent injury,” Snipes said. “We try to do things to keep you very safe. Our three-part mission at the Greenville Health System is to heal compassionately, improve constantly and – why we're here to today – teach innovatively.”

She asked the kids to show her their eyes, ear, noses and mouths.

“You'll have to your eyes on the trail to see all the different colors, the shapes, the flowers,” Snipes said. “You'll have to use your ears to hear the birds sing. You'll have to use that nose to smell the beautiful flowers and everything that's out in the world. You'll have to use your mouth to talk to each other ...and tell your mom and dad what you saw today. We're so glad to be a part of this wonderful trail and we hope you have a great time.”

Amity Buckner with Pickens County First Step asked the kids to point to their brains.

“Even when you were in your mommy's tummy, your brain was working,” Buckner said. “The first five years of your lives are so important and that's why this trail is here. I hope you will always use your brain because that is the key for your success in life.”

The trails encourage kids to be active while they're learning.

“We talked about obesity, we talked about health and learning and some of the stigmas attached to some of those things,” Benson said.

Class member James Payne works at the Pickens County Library System.

“From the start of our class discussion, the welfare and future of our community was right there,” he said. “We always knew we were going to do something for these little guys and girls in front of us and I'm so happy it was this.”

He encouraged the kids to have fun as they explored the new trail.

“As you go through the trail, wiggle, hop, pause, imagine, create,” Payne said. '

The children received “Born Reading” bags put together by the library system.

“Children are so central to the Library System and summer reading is gearing up,” Payne said. “I hope to see you here and I hope to see you at the library this summer.”

Alida Gardiner with the Pickens County YMCA got the kids to help her thank people who help make the trail possible.

“We want to thank, as the Leadership Pickens County Class, the City of Easley for giving us the spot for us to put our awesome trail that's going to help us you guys start to learn and have fun with your parents and your friends, and helping us provide some of the resources and some of the stuff that goes in it,” Gardiner said. “And for our friends at King Asphalt and Metrocon that gave time and people to help us put it together, and to all our awesome classmates who helped build this place. So, for all those people, we're all going to yell thank you as loud as we can.”

Butterflies were released as part of the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The class hopes to build additional trails.

“We'd love to expand into different counties,” Benson said. “We hope it catches on.”