The calendar shows events we are part of and events we are sponsoring. Do you have an event we should know about? Send us a message.
Nature Walk & Birding Along the Blue River
Saturday, May 18, 9 – 10 am CT
Free Event Ages 12+
Join The Resilient Activist and friends for a morning walk along this wooded trail at a portion of the Blue River Parkway Trail System. Listen for birds, including late migrants. No birding background is required. We’ll be guided by veteran birder, Don Arney.
You may wish to download the Merlin Bird ID app ahead of time. This simple app can help ID birds both by recording their sound and by visual traits.
Park at the Blue River Parkway Trailhead near the Tennis Courts. See map here.
More details to come … Register now to save the date!
Walk Leader: Don Arney
Don Arney is a Kansas City native with a lifelong love of and curiosity about the natural world. He is an active Missouri Master Naturalist, a past president of the Burroughs Audubon Society, a native plant experimental gardener, and a Little Lending Library proprietor.
Don has degrees in Civil Engineering and Urban Planning, but more importantly, he has been a birder for more than four decades. Don is a supporter of sustaining and enhancing our remnant natural environment. He participates in the events of several organizations: The Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Prairie Foundation, Kansas City Wildlands, Deep Roots, Lutherans Restoring Creation, and others.
If the stars align, maybe we’ll spot a Great Blue Heron!!
In collaboration with the
American Library Association
and its
Sustainability Roundtable,
The Resilient Activist
is delighted to invite you to join our
Climate Café Gatherings
Monday, May 20, 2024, 6-7:30 pm CT on Zoom
The Resilient Activist is excited to announce our collaboration with the American Library Association and its Sustainability Roundtable to offer our unique interpretation of Climate Café Gatherings!
This is your best opportunity to connect with a community that gets you, with folks who are experiencing many of the emotions that climate change has brought out in your heart and mind.
Climate Café Gatherings are community-based supportive gatherings to nurture and enhance the emotional well-being of those who are experiencing the negative emotional impacts of climate change, severe weather events, drought, wildfires, environmental destruction, and more.
Each session will include facilitators from The Resilient Activist as well as a Climate-Aware Therapist to guide the conversations in ways that are supportive and nurturing.
Who should attend?
This pilot event is for two audiences:
- Anyone who would appreciate being in a supportive space to explore how climate change and ecological destruction make you feel.
- Librarians who would like to experience a Climate Café to learn what it is all about. This event is part of a pilot project to introduce librarians around the U.S. to our Climate Café gatherings via Zoom to envision hosting future in-person “watch party” Cafés in their local libraries.
So gather your favorite beverage and a journal, settle into a comfortable spot with your Zoom window open, and just be yourself.
This is your invitation to join others as they express their fears, learn coping skills, be inspired to increase their environmental activism in healthy and sustainable ways and build a community of others – locally and online – who are experiencing many of the same concerns.
Past participants’ reflections
I really value a space where we can feel all the intensity of feelings around where we are in the climate and extinction crisis: dread, rage & grief are allowed, and nobody thinks you’re overreacting by focusing on activism. ~Michelle M.
This community is special to me because it is a place where I can share my concerns and strong emotions about climate change knowing I will be understood and accepted. ~Anne M.
Community to me means connection to others and fostering a sense of belonging with my fellow beings. It also means holding space with others… to “allow” them to speak their truth and to “understand” their perspectives. And I love the guided meditation! ~Vic P.
As a woman, I feel more empowered to take better care of my emotional, spiritual, mental, & physical well-being. That way I can be more centered and present for myself and for others. ~Maria P.
Restored Prairie & Wildflower Walk
Shawnee Mission Park / Gary L Haller Trail
Thursday, June 6th, 6 – 7 pm
Free Event Ages 12+
Let’s get social! Optional visit to a nearby brewery afterward!
Join The Resilient Activist to see what the Johnson County Parks Department has been up to in restoring sections of the prairie areas along the Gary L Haller Trail. There should be a nice bloom of Penstemon digitalis (foxglove beardtongue), Echinacea pallida (pale purple coneflower), and Monarda fistulosa (bee balm or wild bergamot) this time of year.
Park on 79th Street near the dam or in the Marina parking lot. Meet at the trailhead at the dam. Shawnee Mission Park Marina – Google Maps
After the walk, participants are invited to gather together for an optional visit to Pathlight Brewing or Friction Beer Co.
Walk Leader: Ginger Werp
Ginger Werp is the Project Coordinator for Kansas City WildLands. Her main role is to manage the native seed collection project. Ginger leads a team of core volunteers and hundreds of seed team members to survey, collect, process, and disperse seeds from over 200 species of prairie, woodland, forest, and glade plants.
She learned native plant ID while assisting in field research on deer herbivory in the tallgrass prairie at the University of Kansas. Ginger advocates for native plants at every opportunity she gets and enjoys exploring the native landscapes of Kansas City including the one planted in her front yard.
Image credits:
Penstemon: PaulineLeverett from Pixabay
Echinacea Pallida & Monarda fistulosa: Missouri Botanical Garden
In collaboration with the
American Library Association
and its
Sustainability Roundtable,
The Resilient Activist
is delighted to invite you to join our
Climate Café Gatherings
Monday, June 24, 2024, 6-7:30 pm CT on Zoom
The Resilient Activist is excited to announce our collaboration with the American Library Association and its Sustainability Roundtable to offer our unique interpretation of Climate Café Gatherings!
This is your best opportunity to connect with a community that gets you, with folks who are experiencing many of the emotions that climate change has brought out in your heart and mind.
Climate Café Gatherings are community-based supportive gatherings to nurture and enhance the emotional well-being of those who are experiencing the negative emotional impacts of climate change, severe weather events, drought, wildfires, environmental destruction, and more.
Each session will include facilitators from The Resilient Activist as well as a Climate-Aware Therapist to guide the conversations in ways that are supportive and nurturing.
Who should attend?
This pilot event is for two audiences:
- Anyone who would appreciate being in a supportive space to explore how climate change and ecological destruction make you feel.
- Librarians who would like to experience a Climate Café to learn what it is all about. This event is part of a pilot project to introduce librarians around the U.S. to our Climate Café gatherings via Zoom to envision hosting future in-person “watch party” Cafés in their local libraries.
So gather your favorite beverage and a journal, settle into a comfortable spot with your Zoom window open, and just be yourself.
This is your invitation to join others as they express their fears, learn coping skills, be inspired to increase their environmental activism in healthy and sustainable ways and build a community of others – locally and online – who are experiencing many of the same concerns.
Past participants’ reflections
I really value a space where we can feel all the intensity of feelings around where we are in the climate and extinction crisis: dread, rage & grief are allowed, and nobody thinks you’re overreacting by focusing on activism. ~Michelle M.
This community is special to me because it is a place where I can share my concerns and strong emotions about climate change knowing I will be understood and accepted. ~Anne M.
Community to me means connection to others and fostering a sense of belonging with my fellow beings. It also means holding space with others… to “allow” them to speak their truth and to “understand” their perspectives. And I love the guided meditation! ~Vic P.
As a woman, I feel more empowered to take better care of my emotional, spiritual, mental, & physical well-being. That way I can be more centered and present for myself and for others. ~Maria P.