"From acorn to oak" is an oft-heard phrase at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, as staff use it to describe programs and activities they offer that appeal to people from birth through adulthood.

The Nature Center has always prided itself on providing programming for babies and toddlers, children, teens, and adults. Since 1946, the center has been bringing people into the woods and fields to learn about and appreciate the natural world. For nearly as many decades, its Summer Nature Camp has introduced children to the joys of the outdoors. And since 2006, its Nature Preschool has given toddlers the chance to stretch their imaginations as they scramble over rocks and stomp through puddles.

This year at Summer Nature Camp, four of the counselors embody the "acorn to oak" mantra, as they are Nature Preschool graduates. And all four attended programs and Summer Camp over most or all of the years in between preschool and today.

For two of them — Una Schaffer and Fisher Macklin — it's not much of a stretch to say they were practically born at the center, as their mothers, Executive Director Davnet Conway and Director of Education Kim Hargrave, have worked there for many years.

Schaffer, 18, and Macklin, 16, join Asher St. George-Crouch, also 16, and 17-year-old Natalie Kohrs-Monroe in this year's category of Preschool Graduates/Summer Camp Counselors.

Not surprisingly, all four have preschool memories of "getting dirty." They remember playing in the stream by Counsel Rock, building fairy houses in the woods, fashioning fishing poles out of sticks and skunk cabbage, and enjoying the freedom of the outdoors.

Kohrs-Monroe has a distinct memory of a purple dress that her mother told her was too nice to wear to preschool. But she eventually prevailed, and came home from school that day with mud so embedded in the dress that it was deemed "the Nature Center dress" and she got to wear it to school often after that.

Macklin and his family left for California for a few years and returned a couple of years ago. "That was hard for me, moving away from this place," he said. "This is like a second home to me."

For St. George-Crouch, one of the best parts about the Nature Center, is that "I know everything about it here but I still learn new things every time I come."

Schaffer, a 2020 graduate of Stonington High who will attend University of Rhode Island in the fall, called the nature center "my favorite place on the planet," adding that "I actually tear up when I watch ... the magical innocence of children playing and using their imaginations."

"I've always been a nature kid," said Kohrs-Monroe, whose mother also worked as an educator at the Nature Center during her childhood. "I feel like I grew up here. And because of that, I can relate to the campers because I've been exactly where they are."

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