Speaking of things to do in Brooklyn, this weekend is a perfect opportunity to experience Prospect Park’s acclaimed environmental education programs.
The Park’s Audubon Center (the country’s first urban Audubon Center) and the Lefferts Historic House are hosting “Fall in Love with Prospect Park” this Saturday and Sunday. Forget Pale Male—you can learn about Brooklyn’s resident birds of prey and try your hand at making food the old-fashioned way (i.e. no electricity).
We caught up with GLENN PHILLIPS, the vice president of education at Prospect Park and the center director of the Park’s Audubon Center, who first came to Prospect Park five years ago. But he has been in the business of educating people about their natural surroundings for much longer.
“The thing I like to tell people is I have 30 years of experience in environmental education,” he said. “I started when I was eight.” He grew up in the suburbs of California, where his mother was a schoolteacher. As a boy, he was known for his impressive collection of reptiles and amphibians, and eventually his mother took him to classes all around the district to share his collected creatures and his naturalist knowledge.
“The irony is I never dreamed there was a career in this,” said Phillips. I thought it was something you did for fun.”
