Excalibur Staffing Services provided coordination and lunch during a recent field trip sponsored by The Nature Generation (NatGen) and their sustainable partners, including Booz Allen Hamilton, The Cadmus Group, PPC, SRA International, Salisbury University and TetraTech. More than 100 6th graders from Charles Hart Middle School in Southeast Washington, DC connected with nature during a field trip to the Chapman DeMary Trail in Purcellville, Virginia on Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The 6th graders participated in hands-on activities to learn about trees on the trail, how to be quiet to experience all that nature has to offer, and the concept of Leave No Trace.

The trip was “truly a unique experience that our students and faculty will remember for the rest of their lives,” according to Chris Corwin of Charles Hart Middle School. Because of the personal connection these students made to nature during the field trip, they also come to understand how our waterways tie us all together. They learned that we are all part of the Chesapeake water basin and how our waterways are inter-connected – the South Fork Catoctin creek that runs through the Chapman DeMary Trail leads to the Potomac River, near where their school is located.

As the 6th graders boarded their buses to return to their school in Washington, D.C., NatGen staff gave each student a book about the environment.