Join us in celebrating Dr. Oak Thorne’s 90th birthday and his legacy as a leader, locally and nationally, within the environmental movement.
Dr. Oakleigh Thorne, II was born in NY in 1928, and spent his childhood in a house surrounded by 80 acres of nature. He would spend his days freely exploring the woods, streams, and lake on the property, searching for bird nests, catching turtles, and chasing fireflies. In these formative years of his life, he was learning more than the sound of bird calls; he was learning that to respect our Earth, children must connect to the natural world. It is this lesson that has fueled his life’s work and the legacy of Thorne Nature Experience which he founded in 1954.
Oak is one of our country’s early environmental heroes. He secured one of the first donations ever received by the Nature Conservancy to save the Sunken Forest on Fire Island, helped establish the Boulder Open Space program, and was involved in the countless initiatives including the creation of CU and Naropa Environmental Programs, Our Colorado, the Keystone Science Center, and Aspen Center for Environmental Studies. His greatest achievement though has been the founding of his namesake, Thorne Nature Experience. Thorne is a national leader in the field of environmental education and over its more than six decades of work has helped to connect in excess of 300,000 youth to nature.
We are living in a time where we desperately need to connect all children to nature - for their own health and the health of the planet. Funds raised in honor of Oak at Natural Night Out will support Thorne’s NATURE FOR ALL Initiative which helps ensure all youth, regardless of race, ethnicity, or family income, have the opportunity to connect with nature. Through its NATURE FOR ALL Initiative, Thorne awards more than $400,000 in camp scholarships and subsidized school programs to more than 7,000 underserved youth each year.
We look forward to you joining us at this very special event in supporting Thorne and celebrating Oak’s 90th birthday! Together, we can inspire the next generation of Oak Thorne’s to love and care for our planet.
