30 Year Anniversary Impact

Celebrating our 30 Year Anniversary!

After switching to online programs during the pandemic, and now once again delivering fully in-person programs, KIDS for the BAY celebrated thirty years of service to the community in October 2022! Not only has KIDS for the BAY educated students, teachers and families about the environment, we also have a long history of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a women-founded and led organization, we began with a mission to provide opportunities for students in under-resourced schools to connect with nature, learn hands-on science, and become Inspired Environmentalists!

Mandi Billinge
Executive Director and Founder

Since 1992, 100,590 students have graduated from KIDS for the BAY programs, and 4,039 partner teachers have received curricula, resources, support and training. More than 12,000 parents and caregivers have volunteered as field trip chaperones and environmental stewards to support their childrens’ learning.

KIDS for the BAY is unique in many ways. Our programs combine place-based learning in our partner school classrooms, and outside in the school campus environment, with walking field trips to local park and creek habitats. We also provide special bus field trips to bay shorelines and ocean beaches. We encourage our students to connect with nature in small-sized urban green spaces, as well as in wide open natural spaces. We combine watershed-wide environmental awareness with local, student-led Environmental Action Projects that empower our young environmentalists, reduce pollution in school neighborhoods and help protect the watershed.

In student-led school wide assemblies, buddy-class presentations and family information events, KIDS for the BAY students teach others how to prevent pollution and practice the Five Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot and Refuse) to protect and steward local watersheds. Our young leaders also teach others how to safely prepare and cook bay-delta fish to reduce the intake of toxins. They make and distribute green pesticides to use at home and in school gardens to reduce the harmful impacts of toxic pesticides. Our student stewards also help to restore local urban creeks and bay shorelines by planting trees and wildflowers, and by removing invasive plants, trash and waste from watershed habitats. These activities increase ownership of these special places. In our programs, KIDS for the BAY students become leaders and environmentalists in their schools and families.

Thanks to our partners and supporters, and thanks to our creativity and adaptability, KIDS for the BAY has continued to thrive through two world recessions and a global pandemic! We are extremely thankful to all of our current and past staff, to our wonderful Advisory Board Members, to our funders and donors, and of course to our students, teachers and families who partner with us. With your support, we are looking forward to empowering 100,000 more environmentalists in the next thirty years! We will also continue our commitment to keep diversity, equity and inclusion at the core of the guiding principles of our work, and to provide environmental education for under-resourced school communities that wouldn’t otherwise have these opportunities.