Kim Kmetz - Nature Nurture Center

Our program featured Kim Kmetz who is still settling in as the Development Director for the Nurture Nature Center. NNC was developed in 2007 in direct response to 3 flooding events that hit Easton over the course of just IX months. Easton property owner Ted Kheel founded the Nurture Nature Foundation to study Hooding and bring people together to talk about the risks, hazard mitigation, and solutions.

The NNC has evolved over the years into a center where science and art come together to educate people of all ages about local and global flooding and environmental risk issues through conversation and demonstration. People visit the building with a variety of backgrounds and interests. Scientists become artists. Artists become scientists. The conversation helps people connect at their own interest level. The dazzling Science on a Sphere shows feature programs about weather, geology, butterflies, airplanes, and chocolate. Rumor has it that the chocolate program offers free samples.

Youth-oriented programming includes a summer camp experience that has a different theme every year. There is a 2-day Youth Climate Summit for older students. A series of "Create Resilience" programs have worked with teen ambassadors, and municipal officials. The "Buy Fresh Buy Local" program is a network of chapters across the country, dedicated to increasing the economic viability of small family farms and strengthening regional food systems by expanding markets for locally produced foods. These chapters are working to rebuild local food systems and promote sustainable agriculture by connecting consumers in communities throughout the country” to fresh, locally grown and produced foods.

The NNC is currently closed for major renovations. Construction is underway on a new. 75-seat immersive dome theatre. The Earth & Sky Dome™ theater is the latest addition to NNC’s science and ail exhibits and resources. This theatre will feature inspiring science and ail programs about a diversity of topics including astronomy and earth science, it will also serve as a cultural performance venue for all ages. The dome programs will take visitors on fully immersive trips to the bottom of the ocean or to oceans on other planets! Topics covered will include those related to: Earth systems (meteorology, climate and geology), biology and ecology (plant and animal life, their patterns and habitats), chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering, history, and architecture. Memberships to NNC arc available at various individual and corporate levels.