About the Martinsville-Henry County Community Nature Initiative

With the support of The Harvest Foundation of the Piedmont, Virginia Museum of Natural History and its partners, Dr. Denny Casey and Tamara Poles developed a new nature and outdoor initiative entitled the Martinsville Henry County Community Nature Initiative (MHC CNI). The CNI will serve as a clearinghouse for environmental information, use nature as a way to stimulate learning, develop opportunities for quality family time in the outdoors, and position VMNH as a leader in environmental education. CNI will serve as a means to provide hands-on, real-world opportunities for children, educators, and families to increase appreciation for nature and as an effective means to better understand and address community environmental issues.

Click the above CNI logo for official website and to access your Earth Week Passport!

Earth Week 2010 Highlights

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

April 22, 2011 Screen on the Green!!





Due to inclement weather Screen on the Green had to take place inside at the Rives Theatre. We had over 60 people participate! Attendants were able to construct a recyclable craft with SEMAA, get their faces painted, take part in magic tricks, play a variety of recycling games, dance, and take pictures with Marty the Mustang! After the fun activities we watched the movie Yogi Bear staring Dan Aykroyd, Junstin Timberlake, Anna Faris, and Tom Cavanagh!

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April 20, 2011 and April 21

CITO Hike/Bike the Dick & Willie took place April 20. The Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalists lead a group of community members down the Dick and Willie passage and conducted a Cache In Trash Out event where they use geocaching to take part in a trash pick up! Great job keeping our community clean!

Crafty Earth took place April 21 and was lead by Henry County Parks and Recreation. Participants developed their own Earth Day Crafts using recycled materials!
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April 19, 2011


Star Party!!


SEMAA, Martinsville Parks and Rec, and VMNH partnered to present Star Party!! Educators from VMNH and SEMAA lead a star gazing and participants were able to view Saturn and other planets and stars through very power telescopes! We had over 50 people attend the star party!

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April 18, 2011






Fit for Earth Day??

This Earth Week program enabled participants to hike through the new fitness trail at Philpott Lake with the Friends of Philpott and test how fit they were. This hike was a lot of fun for all ages!

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April 17, 2011




The Martinsville Family Nature Club conducted a Sunday Outing in Frank Wilson Park. Lots of families were able to enjoy a wonderful hike on the new trails in the park! While on the hike they learned about the wonders of nature and the wildlife that live in the park!





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April 16, 2011

Earth Day 5K Despite the inclement weather, the Earth Day 5K still took place and had over 90 participants! :) Way to go everyone!! :)



Edible Plant Identification, Mother EARth Mysteries Special Saturdays Program, Wilderness Survival, Environmental Expo at Philpott, and Fairystone State Park Nite Hike were all canceled due to harsh weather conditions. That's ok everyone, these programs will be back in 2012!

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Earth Day at VMNH







April 15, 2010 Earth Day at VMNH is a conference style event where we have special presenters from community organizations to lead during concurrent sessions for students. We had over 400+ parents and students attend the museum. We broke the day into two time frames so more classes from Martinsville and Henry County schools can have an opportunity to attend this wonderful event! We had presenters from Danville Science Center, Southwestern Piedmont Master Naturalists, Martinsville SEMAA program, VMNH, and Master Gardeners. Programs took place in Frank Wilson Park, VMNH classrooms, and exhibit areas.

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