Optimist Club celebrates International Optimist Day with preschool field trip

MANSFIELD — More than 60 preschool students from Madison Local Schools left the Ohio Bird Sanctuary with full bellies and plenty of energy on Thursday afternoon.

The Mansfield Noon Optimist club sponsored lunch for students during a field trip to the Sanctuary. This marked the club’s second annual International Optimist Day event.

International Optimist Day, introduced in 2013, is celebrated on the first Thursday of February.

Last year, the club sponsored Buckeye Imagination Museum entries so area kids could play in the museum free of charge.

Dave Siebold, Mansfield Noon Optimist Club president and a board member for the Ohio Bird Sanctuary (OBS), said the two groups started collaborating on an Optimist Day event last fall.

“The point of Optimist Day is to give back to the community and the kids, and give everyone a chance to be optimistic,” he said. “This gives the kids an opportunity to explore a new place and get out in nature.

“Some of these kids have never seen turtles or owls up close, so I think they really enjoyed it.”

The students went to different stations around the bird sanctuary including hiking trails, a treehouse classroom and an outdoor playground.

Emily Tackett, OBS director of operations, said the kids also saw a hawk and owl presentation and pet the sanctuary’s rabbits and turtles.

“Our field trips are always a lot of fun,” she said. “The kids spend most of the time outside and they all really like playing in the Naturescape and petting the bunnies and turtles.”

Tackett said OBS usually limits field trip groups to 75 total, including students, teachers and parents. 

Kevin Zehe, Noon Optimist Club member, said the club was happy to collaborate with the bird sanctuary for International Optimist Day.

“The kids did really well at each station and I was surprised with how well-versed they are in a lot of the educational aspects,” he said. “These 4- and 5-year-olds knew the difference between feathers, fur and skin.”

Tori Sloan, a Madison preschool teacher, said her 13 students learned about birds and animals earlier this year.

“Field trips are really helpful for them to remember some of what they learned and see it out in the real world,” Sloan said. “I learn as much as the kids do at some of these trips, and they always have a lot of fun.

“Today, it was really nice weather and great to be outside. They really liked the hike and the games where you pretended to be a bird or a spider on the rope web.”