The Discovery Nature Sanctuary (DNS) in Winkler welcomed a group of “Wild Willows” earlier this month.
The homeschool group of teenage girls and their mothers are always looking for fun activities and spaces to explore for their weekly get-togethers, explains member Phylis Wiebe, who is part of the group alongside her 15-year-old daughter.
“Our trip to the Discovery Nature Sanctuary came up after I was on social media and saw an ad pop up about it,” she says. “I’d never heard of it and I thought it was interesting that there was a nature sanctuary right in the city of Winkler.”
The group, which has about a dozen young ladies participating right now, all hail from the Steinbach area, but they don’t limit themselves to that region for their outings.
“We don’t mind travelling—last year we visited the elevator museum in Plum Coulee … went to Portage la Prairie to see the Fort Le Reine Museum,” Wiebe says. “If there’s something that piques our interest and we all decide we want to do it, we make it happen.”
The Wild Willows got their start last year as a social outlet for home educated teens.
“As moms, we have two goals for our group,” Wiebe explains. “We want to raise our daughters to be godly young women, we want to surround them with people who are walking in the same direction and develop quality friendships with other girls.
“Our second goal is to provide our daughters with a variety of experiences, both practical and interesting, so they’ll have a good foundation of skills and experiences to support them in their future roles, perhaps as wives, mothers, or professionals in a workplace.”
It’s a small but tight-knit group, shares fellow mom Verna Derksen.
“We’re trying not to get too large, because there is a demand for more wanting to join, but we’re just careful not to get too big so the relationships can really grow,” she says. “It’s a chance for the girls to get together and support and encourage each other.”
They meet every Thursday afternoon, sometimes doing hands-on activities and crafts, other times heading out to explore someplace new.
“We try to provide events that appeal to each member,” Wiebe explains. “So that includes a whole range of activities from cooking, baking and sewing to an escape room, hiking, skateboarding, mini golf, art, movies, museum tours.”
Derksen’s daughters, 16-year-old Kamryn and 14-year-old Xzandria, share they’ve been having a blast with the group.
“The connections and hanging out with friends” are highlights for them both, says Kamryn.
Fellow member Rory Kroeker, 16, echoes that.
“One part that I really enjoy is the fact that I get to hang out with other girls around my age,” she says, sharing that a recent craft afternoon spent making scarecrows ended up being an unexpected hit with everyone. “I had never done anything like that before. It was pretty fun.”
The visit to DNS involved a bit of a drive, but the nature preserve—and food at Del Rios to round out the day—proved worth it.
“I really liked the overlooks at the pond,” says Kamryn. “And how many Canadian geese there were.”
“And I really liked how fine the dividing line between the park and the industrial area was,” says Xzandria. “It’s just a fence.”
“It was neat for us to see how urban meets nature so closely,” adds Wiebe.
Two mature cottonwood trees at DNS also caught the girls’ imaginations.
“One of our members said that those trees look like they’re waiting to tell a story,” says Wiebe. “We imagine they’ve seen a lot of Winkler’s history unfold over their lifespan.”
A return visit is in consideration for the spring or summer so the group can get the chance to experience the site in a season when there’s more wildlife to spot.
