FRIENDS OF SCHOOL IN THE WOODS
Established 2024
Become a Legacy Donor
Join before December 31, 2024
Committed to sustaining SITW and preserving the land
Plan ahead!
26th SITW Year
Gathering!
Date: Saturday,
May 10, 2025
12:00 – 2:30
Become a FRIEND of SITW today!
Donate $25.00 or more to our Legacy Fund and become a supporting FRIEND for a year! These donations support our mission and plans for land preservation.
Send a check to – Friends of SITW, 1211 N 31st St., Colorado Springs, CO 80904
or
Venmo
Our Giving Zones
Our 501c3 has been established to help support the SITW programming, campus needs, and land preservation The primary purpose of these funds is to preserve presently-leased land surrounding School in the Woods.
We offer six “zones” of giving, reflecting the six beautiful ecosystems found in our Pikes Peak region:
- Riparian Zone: $1.00-$49.00
- Grasslands Zone: $50.00-$149.00
- Montane Shrubland Zone: $150.00-$499.00
- Montane Forest Zone: $500.00-$999.00
- Subalpine Forest Zone: $1000.00 – $4999.00
- Alpine Tundra Zone: $5000.00 and above
About Us
The mission of Friends of SITW is to support and sustain SITW programming, its campus, and the surrounding state land currently being used by the school.
The early years...
20 years after we started
Founders: Jonathan Wuerth and Carol Stansfield
Our September 2024, Friends Field Notes- get the latest exciting SITW News! – HERE
Naturalist Alumni Share in Interviews
School as Family
Abi Seidenberg – SITW Kinnikinnick Class of 2014
As Jon Wuerth states, “Abi has always maintained a connection to SITW. I admire her for putting herself out there and taking risks outside her comfort zone. She makes us proud.”
SITW taught me that being in nature can heal and ground me in many ways. Nature gives a sense of family you don’t get from a regular school. Having a year surrounded by the natural world also inadvertently makes you conscious of it, and it’s not a belief that is easily shaken.
In this setting, I remember more belonging and love than I ever could have expected. Without this experience broadening my horizons, I would not have the courage to pursue a degree in journalism, nor would I have been confident enough to go to Northern Arizona University. It’s out-of-state yet familiar, as the Flagstaff area keeps me as connected to the environment as I was at SITW.
School in the Woods taught me about integrity – the importance of doing things right when no one else is looking – and that same philosophy is central to being an effective journalist. Through the lens of the natural world, I have learned that the easy path does not create the best results. You need to consider the impact of your actions on others. You are a truth-seeker who describes how actions affect not just you, but your readers, your publication, your community, and the entire world.
Recently, I returned to SITW to reset my psyche after a rough first year of college. I needed to re-ground and realize that I’m just a small part of something much bigger than myself. The SITW experience is just one year, but it cannot be replicated by anything I’ve ever seen or heard. What I learned there about myself and others became even more relevant as I grew up.
Nature Became My Identity – and My Destiny
Alec Wyatt, Eastern Cottontail SITW Class of 2009
My life has been forever shaped by this one year in the forest. I vividly remember my year in the woods, as it was the most engaging teaching I had ever had – and an experience I would never have again in school. As it turns out, those nine months were all I really needed to know about what I was going to do with the rest of my life.
At School in the Woods, we were permitted to explore the woods freely and expend our energy as we pleased as long as we could see the school and hear the bell that denoted the end of recess. This level of freedom extended to many aspects of the School in the Woods experience. It led to the development of mature students who tended to rise to the level of responsibility bestowed upon them.
In going through this experience as one, we forged a camaraderie. Whether we were hiking through challenging weather in soggy shoes or muddy boots, I would take that any day over stale fluorescent lights. These challenges brought us together and developed relationships that continue to this day.
School in the Woods sparked a lifelong love of nature for me. I was always an outdoorsy child, but SITW nurtured and honed that interest into something I could own. I left School in the Woods empowered to pursue my love of nature, take action on my own to protect the natural world, and share my passion for nature with others.
The School inspired me to study nest boxes during the Black Forest Fire of 2013, to lead birding walks for local children, to volunteer at SITW during Spring Field Projects, to earn certification as a Master Naturalist in Texas and New Mexico, and to speak at conferences and events about birds, wildfire ecology, and nature. These experiences were rooted in my time in nature at School in the Woods.