Bloggin’ Mamas Social Good Campaign

Next month, my brood and I will pack up our things and head up north to go tent camping with family. While I have been going to the woods since I was 10 days old, and tent camping in upstate NY since I was a year-old, my kids have never experienced nature through tent camping in a forest.

A few months ago, my husband’s nephew approached us with the idea of going camping with them.  Of course, at the time, the kids’ idea of roughing it involved a hotel room with no DVD player, and they weren’t too keen on going. However, we got a chance to stay in a cabin right after.  It helped open their eyes a bit more to the nature around them. They didn’t want to leave. So now we are graduating them to full-fledged exposure to nature via sleeping in a tent. Aah yes, the sounds of the owls hooting and nocturnal animals scurrying about at night, and the sounds of the birds chirping when you wake up in the morning. There is no better way to feel connected with the world around you. I can’t wait for them to experience that.

And when I found out about the #DiscoverTheForest campaign, I immediately jumped on supporting it.

ABOUT DISCOVER THE FOREST:

Discover the Forest is a public service campaign created by the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council with the primary goal of inspiring kids and their parents to re-connect with nature. The campaign brings to life the joy and excitement kids have when they discover the wonders of nature, helping create lasting memories, interest in their environment and a lifelong relationship with it. The campaign website, www.DiscoverTheForest.org, includes an interactive tool that enables users to search for nearby forests and parks, as well as downloadable activities for them to print and take with them when they visit. The campaign also features online communities on Facebook and Instagram (search Discover the Forest) and Twitter (@cheecker).

#DiscoverTheForest

 

It’s a good thing I did too, because I found this really cool interactive map on the site that allowed me to search for nearby forests and parks in the Orlando area, and filter by zip code and desired activities, so that we could pick the best place for us to go camping. They also have free outdoor activities that you can download and print to take with you when you visit.

Here are some other cool things you can do to support our forests:

  1. Participate in #ForestFriday: Share photos and quotes about forests and getting outdoors on social media every Friday.
  2. Join @Cheecker for a fun Twitter Party all about the great outdoors with the US Forest Service at 1 p.m ET on June 26th! Follow #ForestChat to join the conversation.
  3. Check out this PSA and share it:

In the meantime, I will keep you posted on our camping trip. We are going right after Social Fresh and right before BlogHer, so it will be a busy week.

Disclosure:

This post was written on behalf of a Bloggin’ Mamas Social Good campaign, in partnership with Element Associates, All opinions expressed are my own.