A $10,000 grant award by Evergy to PSU Nature Reach will fund a pilot program designed to bridge the gap between two existing programs offered to area youth.

The pilot program, Kindergarten Day Camp, will be held at the PSU Nature Reserve operated by Nature Reach, and will begin in Summer 2020. It will have the capacity to serve 30 children each session. Currently, Nature Reach Director Delia Lister offers a Pre-K Summer Reading Program in the Nature Reach room on campus, incorporating live animals housed there with children’s literature. She also offers summer day camps at the Nature Reserve for first through third graders. Both programs have been extremely popular since their inception and routinely fill up.

The funding also will help support daily Nature Reach operations and programming and in 30 communities, primarily in Southeast Kansas, but also in Southwest Missouri and Northeast Oklahoma.