The students are then taken on a field trip to a natural place, such as Temescal, Topanga or Eaton canyons. Then, the organization takes the children on an "urban nature walk" in their neighborhood -- "teaching them that they don't need to live in a rich or an elite area to appreciate nature," said Christina Bianchi, program director.
For schools to qualify for free programming, 70% of students must be enrolled in a free or reduced-price lunch program. More than 250 schools in Greater Los Angeles were served last year.
The agency also runs after-school programs and holds garden plantings and beach cleanups. Its budget for 2008-09 is roughly $600,000, some of it from "earned-income" programming aimed at families but most raised through grants, donations and events such as walkathons. The institute received $20,000 this year from the Los Angeles Times Family Fund.
Kamin is bracing for a difficult year. Major donors have told the organization that they will have to pull funding because of the economic crisis. Gifts from the business community have all but dried up, he said.
"It is very, very scary what is on the horizon," he said. "Nonprofits will be suffering a lot more in the next year."
Kamin spoke at the Malibu Lagoon, an unusual example of a Southern California saltwater marsh. A few minutes later, a school bus pulled up and 60 first-graders tumbled out, students from Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School in the City Terrace community.
During the next two hours, the students toured the lagoon with three volunteers, learning to identify coastal sage by smell, to spot seabirds that were gliding instead of flapping their wings and to walk like an egret.
"Do we want to leave [the park] like this or trample it and leave our trash behind?" volunteer Susan Silver asked the children.
"Leave it like this!" they shouted.
"Do you know the word 'respect'?" she asked.
Six-year-old Victor Cortes raised his hand.
"We need to respect this place -- treat it like a baby," he said.
At one point in the tour, Bianchi and a boy ran to catch up with the rest of the group. "Sorry!" she said when they caught up. "We were having a ladybug moment!"
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scott.gold@latimes.com
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