Finding Her Niche
Thirty-five years ago, jobs were scarce in the wilds of south Florida, so Sandy Dayhoff was happy to be hired as a fee collector at Everglades National Park. One day a co-worker in the Shark Valley duty station became ill, so Dayhoff was recruited to lead and narrate a tram trip on short notice. Although she knew the ’Glades intimately from homesteading nearby, she had never spoken before an audience. Evidently, she did quite well: As fate would have it, the superintendent’s wife and child were on the tram. They passed rave reviews on to the superintendent and insisted that Dayhoff should be working with children full-time. Dayhoff had discovered her niche, and she never left the Everglades; today she’s coordinator of the Environmental Education Program.
The program has since expanded from brief tram trips and nature walks to educational day trips for 4th- through 6th-graders, three-day camping experiences for 5th- and 6th-grade students, teacher workshops for college credit, community outreach programs, parent nights, and partnerships with Florida International University, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the South Florida Water Management District. Students come from six county school systems, private schools, and even homeschooling. Typically, 14,000 children participate annually. Since the program began, nearly half a million youth from communities in south Florida have gained an in-depth understanding of Everglades National Park.
Although the statistics are impressive, the story behind those numbers is equally inspiring. The program initially targeted inner-city schools. Teachers were required to attend workshops to plan classes before the children’s visit, a challenge, considering that most of the teachers had never been to the Everglades, and many were repulsed by the thought of snakes and alligators. But Dayhoff has delighted these teachers and their students with a perspective that personifies life in the Everglades. She even occasionally sheds her park uniform in favor of costumes, taking on the role of park critters, such as wood storks and swamp rats. Her co-workers have been equally creative and dedicated. Today there are waiting lists to bring students to the park.
Years ago, Dayhoff sought permission from Everglades and Big Cypress superintendents to use a remote five- acre site that was ideal for an environmental education center. They agreed but seemed to doubt the likelihood of success. Funding was lacking in the beginning—without adequate restrooms, visitors were forced to use outhouses early on. But 20 years after the first campers arrived, a code-compliant office and camp headquarters were finally completed.
“We need to look at education as a long-term investment,” Dayhoff says. “NPS employees can only be as good as the support they receive from their park. Everglades has been stellar in making this education program continue.”
One of the final activities at each overnight camp is a sharing circle in which participants sum up what they have learned. At a recent 5th-grade camp-out that Dayhoff attended, one of the chaperones choked up while sharing her feelings. Her wish had come true, she said. She had been a camper in the late 1970s and had hoped one day to bring her children back to the same place. Until that day, her daughter had never understood why mom conserved water, recycled, and tried to protect the natural world. But now she believed her daughter would appreciate this environmental ethic.
Dayhoff remembers quietly stepping away from the campfire that night, satisfied that she’d helped deliver a valuable message from one generation to the next. That’s all she’d ever set out to do.
Connie Toops is a nature photo-journalist based in Marshall, North Carolina. She worked as a Park Service seasonal employee in the 1970s and first contributed to National Parks magazine in 1977.
