Abstract
Nancy King Smith, Executive Director of the Shaker Lakes Nature Center, discusses her personal and official involvement with the Center. Interview contains considerable information about fundraising campaigns, capital improvements, organizational structure, recreational and educational programming, and public outreach.
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Interviewee
Smith, Nancy King (interviewee)
Interviewer
West, Julie (interviewer)
Project
Shaker Lakes Nature Center
Date
6-28-2006
Document Type
Oral History
Duration
91 minutes
Recommended Citation
"Nancy King Smith Interview, 28 June 2006" (2006). Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection. Interview 902006.
https://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/crohc000/244
Transcript
Julie West [ 00:00:00 ] Nancy King Smith. With me, I have Martha Eakin, Ishima [?], and Tony [Bifulco] and Mark [Sack] are the technical people. Nancy, did you grow up in the Cleveland area?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:00:11 ] No, I actually grew up in California.
Julie West [ 00:00:14 ] So then when did you come to this area?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:00:16 ] I’ve been here just about 25 years.
Julie West [ 00:00:20 ] Can you describe or would you please describe an early memory of an outdoor experience?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:00:26 ] Well, growing up in California, in a fairly hot spot, we would often go to the mountains for summer vacations. My dad was a teacher, so we had time to do that. And the Sequoia National Park is really where I kind of cut my teeth on the outdoor world and becoming enchanted with it.
Julie West [ 00:00:49 ] How and when did you first get involved with the Nature Center and the surrounding natural areas?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:00:56 ] When we moved to Cleveland almost 25 years ago, my daughters were 3 and 6, and I was wanting to get involved in this new community. Knowing that the Nature Center was here was one of the reasons we chose to live in Shaker Heights. And so it wasn’t long before I found my way over here and enrolled them in classes and got involved in doing the docent training to help with the classes and then got involved in the friends organization to help with membership. That was the first round.
Julie West [ 00:01:40 ] What changes have you seen in the Nature Center since you first became involved?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:01:45 ] Well, if I go back the 25 years, it was, as it is today, an important resource for the community and providing wonderful educational opportunities for children and for adults and wonderful trails. The boardwalk was not installed when I first came, and that was certainly an addition in the early ’80s. But jumping ahead a few years to 1995, which is when I became Executive Director, the changes that I’m most aware of are the physical ones of the total remodeling and expansion and an expansion of the programming as well, particularly to go beyond natural history education into more broadly environmental and sustainability as a focus.
Julie West [ 00:02:54 ] Let’s go back to your earlier experiences when your children were enrolled. What memories do you have of that period and their experiences and your perceptions?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:03:08 ] Well, I guess I remember that most of the time they liked coming. There were a couple of times with my younger daughter who was not as adventurous, that she might have not been too happy that I was leaving her. But they always seemed to have a wonderful time. And as a result of those early experiences, they both continue to love the out of doors, and we as a family spent a lot of time outside. So it was really exposure to observation and really enjoying and feeling comfortable in the out of doors.
Julie West [ 00:03:52 ] Do you remember anything specific about programming that they were exposed to?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:03:57 ] I wish I did. I know they had art projects when they finished, but I can’t come up with any specific one.
Julie West [ 00:04:10 ] Tell me a little bit more, if you can, about the docent training you went through at that time and what you actually did as a result of that training.
Nancy King Smith [ 00:04:18 ] Well, Rich Horton, who was then the director, had regular docent classes and we would go out and explore the trails at that time. Very much from the point of view of an experiential kind of more paying attention to what you saw and felt and heard than that much specific. This is say maple tree or that there was some of that, but a lot of it in terms of the training to work with particularly the youngest groups of kids. But also to some degree, the school age was really about an introduction to the outdoor world and observation skills and sensing. So even though we were adults, we would go through a number of those exercises and things like having a leaf as a ticket to the orchestra concert of the forest where everybody would arrive with their leaf and then listen to the sounds that we might hear or opportunities to do poetry as a group. So a lot of those kinds of arts-related things. I’m assuming my daughters did the same thing, but I don’t have as specific a memory or one of the things I do especially remember of that docent training was the last one of the spring was to be lunch by foraging. And so I came and we walked around Lower Shaker Lake and there were a few little greens and a few things that we sort of picked up. And I thought this is. We’re not going to have much lunch. And lo and behold, we arrived to a spot by Lower Lake where there was a picnic basket full of previously prepared food that we sat there. That was kind of a fun way to end that. But Rich was a natural teacher and so it was, it was good. I then did help teach some of the classes for the, the outdoor adventure classes and also work with some scout groups and so on.
Julie West [ 00:06:46 ] Can you- I know you said you came to the area about 25 years ago, but can you be a little more specific about the time frame when you were actually took the docent training and were a docent at the center?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:06:56 ] That would have been in the early ’80s.
Julie West [ 00:07:03 ] And did you actually- Was there a paid staff at that time or was a docent staff?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:07:08 ] There was a paid staff. There were, were, I believe, I know Dan Best was one of the naturalists and I believe there was at least one more. Rich did a lot of the teaching as well. And the docents didn’t do all of the classes, but they did some of the school groups as I recall.
Julie West [ 00:07:33 ] So you would do it on your own, not in conjunction with the naturalists.
Nancy King Smith [ 00:07:36 ] That’s my memory though. I think the naturalist did the majority of the school classes.
Julie West [ 00:07:44 ] And you mentioned that you went out on the trails of the trails that are here today. What trails were here at that point?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:07:50 ] The Stearns Trail was there and then the trails around Lower Lake. I really don’t have much memory of how close we got to the marsh before the boardwalk was put in. That was also prior to the pavilion going in, which I actually oversaw in my first year here. And there was a meadow area where the pavilion is that we used for teaching.
Julie West [ 00:08:29 ] Any other memories about that period of time they experienced as a docent or the grounds or the Nature Center?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:08:37 ] Well, this isn’t so much the grounds, but one of the projects I was involved with was trying to encourage membership and working with some folks on trying to get in touch with the realtors in the area so that when they were showing houses or having new people come in that they would be aware of the Nature Center and try to promote that way. And that was a project that I worked on.
Julie West [ 00:09:05 ] And you mentioned you did this as a part of the Friends organization.
Nancy King Smith [ 00:09:10 ] Yes, though I think that particular project was a more general Nature Center board project.
Julie West [ 00:09:17 ] Can you talk a little bit about - you said you were a member of the Friends - and what that organization was like and its purpose at that point in time?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:09:25 ] Regular programs. And at least for part of that time they provided childcare, which was something that I value. And so a lot of interesting slide programs on various places that people had visited. The organization also is putting on the Squirrel’s Nest, which was a holiday boutique, kind of similar to many that are going on today. But it was one of the first of that type. And so we all got involved with baking things or helping staff that event. I also remember attending a couple of the parties in the park before they stopped. Now that was just about the time they almost finished their run. But I can remember cooking a lot of hors d’oeuvres for a pre party in the park effort here on the boardwalk for the major donors or for some event I can’t remember, or a group of people. And then we went over to Horseshoe Lake, which is where the party in the park was actually held.
Julie West [ 00:10:46 ] What are your memories or experiences relative to the parties in the park?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:10:51 ] Well, the two I went to were a lot of fun, but the second one was very, very wet. It rained hard. People were- It was very muddy. And I think that may have been the last one when they decided it was just getting too complicated to put on something that large with the possibility of rain.
Julie West [ 00:11:11 ] Could you explain a little more about what the party of the park actually was? What did it entail?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:11:18 ] It, again, was sort of a leader of the type of benefits we see quite a bit of today. That initially, I think all of the food was provided by volunteers who would make enough for lots of people to sample. As things went along, I think they got more restaurants involved. And at the time that I was going, it seems to me it was a combination of people, just volunteers and then restaurants who provided the food. So you’d go and in a big tent and taste food and see lots of people. And it was, as Nature Center benefits seem to be today, kind of like a big community block party.
Julie West [ 00:12:04 ] Was one of the intentions to raise money?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:12:06 ] Absolutely.
Julie West [ 00:12:07 ] And how did they raise money?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:12:09 ] Through the admission fees, ticket costs.
Julie West [ 00:12:20 ] You mentioned that you, when you first came back to town, that the boardwalk wasn’t there. But yet at this point in time, the boardwalk is here. So what can you tell us about the development of the boardwalk, the planning, the actual implementation?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:12:34 ] I was not involved in it at all. And trying my dates as to how all that fell together are not very clear. I do remember driving by and seeing that the boardwalk was under construction. And I do remember that we did some event on the boardwalk prior to a party on the park.
Julie West [ 00:12:58 ] But were you aware of any discussion among members or in the community at that time, pro or con, relative to the board? What was the general feeling?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:13:11 ] No, I think there was interest in that it was going to provide access. Oh, and the other piece I remember, and it must, when it was finished, there was a real push to make sure that the docents and others involved in the Nature Center had training in working with those with disabilities, both physically and blind and deaf. And I can remember a couple of specific trainings on that and that wheelchairs were made available so that the whole accessibility of it to the special needs population was an important part of why people were excited about it.
Julie West [ 00:13:57 ] I know that a little bit later you began became the director of the center. Were there any other significant interactions that you had or experiences at the center between the ones you’ve just been talking about and the time you became a director, the executive director?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:14:15 ] For me, I got very involved in the League of Women Voters and was president of the League. And we did a little bit in terms of issues around recreation, but we were primarily looking at education during those years and changes in the schools. And then I was on the founding staff of the Cleveland Children’s Museum and really didn’t have the time to be involved. And so there was a period of a number of years where I didn’t have time. I believe I stayed as a member for most of that. And actually then one of the grants that we got through the Children’s Museum had the Nature Center as a collaborator on a science education for teachers project. And so I worked with the staff here to make that happen. It was a summer institute as a piece of it. So I had that relationship.
Julie West [ 00:15:24 ] Can you explain a little bit more about what that program was, especially how the Nature Center was involved and about the time frame that this would have been?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:15:33 ] That would have been probably about 1992, ’93, along in there. And the program had a four week institute for teachers where they had some in depth content learning at an adult level as well as some opportunities to look at curriculum and how to work with kids. There was a- One focus was reptiles and amphibians, another was geology, another one was astronomy. And then there was a more general biology and nature, which was the week that was here. So the teachers would actually spend a week at each site with instruction and experiences.
Julie West [ 00:16:32 ] Let’s move on to when you became the executive director. If you could give us a little background and how that transpired. And again when it transpired.
Nancy King Smith [ 00:16:43 ] I had left the Children’s Museum in spring of 1994 and was doing some consulting. Was asked by David Imbrogno, who was the director. He’d been here at the Nature Center about a year and a half. I had known David before he came to Cleveland. He was in Cincinnati and we had both served on the Ohio Museum’s board. So I knew David. And so he asked me to help with some educational planning for the Nature Center and to look at how the program could be upgraded and fitting in with what that was sort of the beginning of the real push for standards and aligning curriculum and so on. So I convened a committee and worked on that and wrote a report of recommendations. And while I was involved in that, David asked me to come to meet with him. And I can remember we were walking on the boardwalk and he said, I’ve just been offered a job that I really want to take as director of the Bernheim Arboretum in Kentucky. Huge. 16,000 acres, real opportunity. Would it be okay if he recommended that I be the interim director and that he could, when he announced or told the board, that he would have some game plan for a next step and so I thought that I could do that and would enjoy that with no real expectation that I would continue largely because I did not have– well, I have a love of the out of doors, I really did not have the biology background to feel that it would be something that would be a good fit for the long term. So after four or five months and they had done a national search and brought a couple of people in for interviews and had asked if I would put my name in and I did. And obviously I was the successful candidate and then stayed on as director for 10 years. And I think it worked partly because I didn’t have a biology background and was really approaching it more from a layperson and could bring some other skills and have always had a wonderful staff of naturalists who could provide that kind of education and expertise.
Julie West [ 00:19:43 ] Would you describe the Nature Center kind of as you found it when you first came in as the interim director and then became the director, Executive Director?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:19:54 ] Well, I’ll do both sort of how it was organizationally and how it was physically. So organizationally it had gone through a very difficult period from about 1989 through 93 or so. It had rapid change of directors, had had difficulty with funding, had started on a capital campaign that it couldn’t finish, had differences of opinion about the direction of education educational program, whether to go more toward the Earth Institute, more experiential, or more into the more science oriented. So it had been a very difficult period and I had kind of watched from afar, being concerned and continuing to work some collaboratively with the staff. As I said, that was the period of time that we were collaborating with the Nature Center from the Children’s Museum. David Imbrogno came in, would have been, I think ’93 or the end of ’92, and had a lot of experience in strategic planning. And he really led the board and the staff through a strategic planning process and stabilized the organization in a lot of ways and had a good game plan for pretty basic stuff. But getting the educational programming back on track, the membership, fundraising, just sort of all the basics and setting targets for doing that, that was enormously helpful because it really gave a good starting point. Some of the tensions and conflicts of those in between years had settled down. And so I was coming into an organization that was starting its way back up and had a game plan for doing that. And that’s what we did the first couple of years. Physically, the building was getting tired. It was showing its 1960, late 1960s and just a lot of things that while it had been maintained in terms of it wasn’t a wreck, but it was just looking a little stodgy. As well as the fact that from the design, from the beginning, there really was no area for visitors to come to other than a very small front desk and a small gift shop. But it was- You open the door and the first thing you were greeted with was a fairly steep staircase heading up to the second floor. And the classrooms were smaller than they needed to be for the size of the classes. And so I knew that once more stability and so on was in place, that the next thing to take a look at would be how to improve the building. The other big problem was that there was no easy access to the second floor, which is where all the programming was taking place. So we knew we needed to deal with that more substantively than the steep and gravelly path around to the back.
Julie West [ 00:24:04 ] Can you kind of- And that was great the way you did first the staff and then the building. Can you kind of then walk us through your tenure in terms of the changes that happened in each of those areas, the significant events as you see it?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:24:21 ] Well, and I haven’t mentioned the board, which was also a part of the whole organizational bringing along and really taking a look at the needs of what size and who would be helpful on the board. So we did a lot of board development during that period of time as well. The staffing. There were a couple of strong naturalists here and they had started doing a really building back trust with some of the schools that had not felt that the quality was as consistent as they wanted it. So they were well on their way. And as we then were attracting more schools, we were able to add some other good staff on the naturalist way. We also, over that period of time, maybe by it was 1989, had gotten the Nature Center’s endowment foundation to agree to invest some money in upgrading the development funding program to bring in a full-time skilled development person. And it was at that point that I hired Steve Cadwell as the first, at least in recent memory, full time development director. And so all of those staffing and board development and bringing people along brought organizationally things along. We started a new strategic plan after having accomplished most of the goals of the one that was in place when I arrived and probably tried to do it not in as focused a way as later it seemed would probably have been helpful trying to kind of set some possibilities and had people explore those. And after a couple of years, really of moving through some of that planning process, realized we needed to get a skilled facilitator in to pull it together. And at that point had the Association of Nature Center Administrators, ANCA, come in for a peer consult. And that meant that they brought in actually four people who were directors of Nature Centers from around the country, who came in and spent three days talking with staff and members and board and taking a look at our programming and ended up with some recommendations among them to bring in Corky McReynolds, who was just one of the top Nature Center consultants in the country, to help us take all of the information and ideas and what we wanted to do and really get it focused into an action plan. So Corky came in and I think he came either two or three times for structured times with the board and members of the community and staff. And out of that process emerged what was clearly already the direction we were going, but a plan for how to start in on the physical planning to upgrade the building. And so that strategic plan really then led to establishing a facilities committee that started looking at what the needs were and getting an architect on board. We thought at the time we were starting that yes, we wanted a visitor area and we needed to deal with getting a lift or an elevator of some sort. And we were thinking of something fairly small, probably in the million dollar scope of fundraising. And we thought we could handle that. By the time we had spent time with Rick Parker as architect and looked at what we really needed programmatically and looking longer into the future, it was clear that we needed to do more and that it would be a mistake to do it, partially that we needed to think bigger. And while not everybody agreed that was on the board, the majority of the board really saw that we did have or could develop the organizational capacity to do the additional fundraising and do it. So there was a fair amount of risk, but cautious risk. And we did have a- Once we had the plans, which got the early estimates, which it was clear it was going to be over $2 million to do what we wanted to do. We did have a development consultant do a feasibility study, and they talked with people in the community and did their process and felt that we should be able to raise 2 million. More than that was going to be something of a stretch. But by that time we were committed to wanting to do as many green building things as we could, including the geothermal HVAC, which was going to be a $75,000 add on just in itself. And at that point, the board decided to again say, let’s think big. So a $2.5 million 2001 capital campaign got underway that was in spring and we all know what happened in September of 2001 with 9/11 and the fact that the economy had started to slow down. So it was a tough fundraising climate, but we had a good story to tell. We had some serendipity with a bequest that was not used directly for funding the capital campaign, but provided the knowledge that we’d have a little more of a base in our endowment foundation to work from. And By March of 2002, we had to make the decision as to whether we were going to start construction that summer or wait another year, which we really didn’t want to do. And we just met our goal of, I believe it was two-thirds of the amount by March to feel like we could commit to going through the whole process. So then we quickly started up, and by June, we were out of, totally out of the building and deconstructing it, trying to salvage as much as we could for recycling either here or in other projects. And we spent from June through January in offices down at Chagrin and Lee, trying to run some programs in the schools, but mostly focused on trying to get the building finished. We were back into the classroom and office side of it in January, but it was April before we opened the visitor area and had our grand opening on earth day of 2003.
Julie West [ 00:32:50 ] You mentioned that at a point in time, it was clear that you wanted to have a green building or characteristics thereof. Say a little bit about how that evolved. How did that come to be?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:33:01 ] Well, through this fairly protracted strategic planning process, green building was becoming more of an approach that certainly any group that was working with environmental education wanted to at least take a look at, but it was still a new phrase. We actually had a board member when we started talking about green building who thought we wanted to paint the building green. We were all on a learning curve, including the architect and the contractors. But we said we wanted to do as much as we could without adding excessive expense, to add elements that were energy efficient, that were using recycled materials or long lasting materials, paying attention to use of water and minimizing that. We added a lot of things like the no-flush urinals and the geothermal rooftop gardens, sun tubes, and all the things that are in our green building pressure.
Julie West [ 00:34:13 ] What were there challenges related to doing this type of building, and do you have some memories about some of those that might have occurred?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:34:26 ] A lot of it is a blur. It was all happening so fast, but there were a number of issues. We ran into some soil problems that slowed things down and caused some additional expense. The electrical systems were a challenge. Still are to some degree. The fact that the architect and the engineering, mechanical engineering firm had not really had that much experience with some of the things they were trying to do meant that there were some design issues that we had to deal with and made things not go quite as smoothly as they might have. We had hoped to be back in the classroom side of the building by October, and it was January before we actually moved in. Another piece that had happened earlier on, really, in the planning process was the decision to that instead of trying to build around a red oak tree that was near the front of the building, to decide that we needed to take it down and use the space it occupied for the visitor area. It was showing that it was a compromised tree and would probably have had to come down eventually anyway. So we tried to make lemon out of lemonades by starting the One Tree Project, which turned out to be just a wonderful part of the whole remodeling, to take the lumber from that tree and use it for furniture, including the conference room table that we are sitting at right now, as well as a number of beautiful art objects that are on display.
Julie West [ 00:36:30 ] Now that you’ve been in the building for a while, what are your thoughts or feelings about how it’s worked out?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:36:40 ] Well, it really has accomplished what we wanted it to. It’s given a place for people to come in and learn something about the natural world. We’ve played off of the nature inside and out for people to come inside and learn some things, go out on the trails, and then come back from the trails to check out more information or ideas. Not that every visitor does that, but there certainly is a sense of the way in which we design the exhibits to encourage that. It’s also given us a place to show the history, the wonderful legacy of the freeway fight, and also to give information about the Doan Brook, which I didn’t mention earlier. Fairly early on in my tenure here, realized that Watershed Education was an ideal way to have an umbrella for all kinds of environmental and community education, and that the Doan Brook was relatively unknown as to how it really flowed. The fact that it flows through the Shaker parklands and then goes underground into under University Circle and out through Rockefeller Park. At that point in time, an awful lot of people did not make the connection and weren’t particularly aware of what the Doan Brook was. So over pretty much the full 10 years that I was here, we did a lot with Watershed Education and then eventually taking the joint committee on Doan Brook, which we were staffing and spinning that off into a separate 501 is the Doan Brook Watershed Partnership. So the visitor area also has been an opportunity to do some of that as well. And then the classrooms, while we didn’t add numbers of classrooms, they were larger enough and attractive spaces so that they work a whole lot better for the classes. The one classroom had been downstairs in what it turns out was really supposed to have been a garage. And it felt like a garage with low ceilings and not much view outside. So early on in the architectural planning process, we decided to put all of the program spaces upstairs. And that has meant that all of those classrooms now have wonderful views outside. And then moving all of the offices downstairs, that allowed for better staff use of facilities as well, even though the office offices aren’t quite as nice from a view standpoint as the earlier ones. And it was that decision that really kicked up the whole cost of the project.
Julie West [ 00:40:08 ] You mentioned the focus on Watershed. How else did the programming change? Talk about the programming when you started and how it evolved during your tenure.
Nancy King Smith [ 00:40:20 ] Well, I think from the school curriculum point of view, the biggest one or biggest influence was the increasing attention to state standards of education, where everybody needed to make sure that the students were getting the basics there. So aligning all of the programs we were already doing toward that. There was also a shift, particularly with the Cleveland Heights schools, where all of their students have come at regular grade intervals. And the fifth graders at that time came for a three-day Earthkeepers program, which was a wonderful experiential way of understanding some of the cycles of nature and stewardship, but was not as focused on standards as was needed for the new era. So for that program, we actually designed a new three day Watershed program to replace the three-day Earthkeeper program. And instead of having it three consecutive days for each of the fifth grades, it became three days for each all of the fourth grades. One in the fall, one in the winter and one in the spring. And because of the numbers of Cleveland Heights students, that became still an extremely important 13 classrooms each scheduled three times. And the whole Cleveland Heights plus the other grades have made what Cleveland High schools wanted is a lot of what drove the development of curriculum on the adult level. The Friends organization continued, but had really lost its leadership. So the Nature Center staff was managing some of that, and they continue to committee. Friends continues to plan the programs, but with more staff support. Programmatically, probably the longest lasting, in addition to the Watershed work was starting environmental town halls, so that on a monthly basis at noon, we have a speaker on an environmental topic with opportunity for discussion. And over the 10 years or so, now that it’s been going, that’s given opportunity for lots of different programs programmatically or not so much. But from a fundraising point of view, the biggest change was our starting again to have a major benefit in between the demise of the parties in the park. There had been a 25th anniversary big celebration in the parking lot. But when I came in as director, there was already in place a plan to have a benefit on the bridge. And in the summer of 1995. And so we did and it meant setting up tents and the whole infrastructure out on the bridge between the marsh and lower lake. And that became- it was an instant success, both fundraising wise and again sort of the big neighborhood block party. Then what we decided was that it was such a big effort we would only do it every other year. And so that continues to be the tradition. And in the third year, somewhere along in there, we decided we wanted to have a family event in between which wasn’t necessarily so focused on being a fundraiser but was more a friend raiser. And so that has now evolved into Bug Bash as an every other year smaller friend fundraiser that’s family oriented.
Julie West [ 00:45:03 ] Can you just say a little bit more about the major fundraiser every other year? What kind of event is it? What goes on at these events?
Nancy King Smith [ 00:45:12 ] It’s typical benefit, but it’s outside. After I believe it was three, maybe even four benefits on the bridge, we changed to have it on the parking lot because it was just getting too expensive to host it on the bridge. And it was somewhat- And it was limited in size. Even now on the parking
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