Urban Wilderness Program

04/28/2026

The New School Montessori 5th and 6th graders had a blast on their April field trips!

The students had the opportunity to learn to fish and paddle their handmade boats while enjoying the sunny day. The canoeing was smooth, the water was warm, and there was some fishing success catching catfish and bluegill!

Thank you so much New School Montessori! Urban Wilderness is excited for the next adventures with you!

04/27/2026

Thank you for such a unique boatbuild!

We love when schools want to get creative with their boats, and the Urban Wilderness team is always excited to make those design dreams come true.

Introducing the Awaken at Aiken “Bean Boat”! It is a canoe for all the coffee lovers out there! The boat even features coffee grains mixed into the skin…

If your school or organization wants to get creative with us, contact [email protected] (OH) or [email protected] (MN).

04/23/2026

Thank you to The New School Montessori for a great build!

The 6th graders have a field trip with Urban Wilderness today where they will take their boat out for a spin. Nothing pairs better than beautiful weather and canoeing! Enjoy the adventure! 🛶

If you are interested in your own boatbuild, contact [email protected] (OH) or [email protected] (MN).

04/21/2026

Happy April from Urban Wilderness! 🌸🌻🪻

Our Cincinnati team kicked off the month boatbuilding with New School Montessori’s 6th graders and field tripping with their 5th graders. We also had a wonderful field trip with the Zoo Academy and a great build in the Columbus area with The Wellington School.

Currently, half our team is building at Aiken High School while the other half is building in St. Louis.

The Urban Wilderness April finale will be an outdoor adventure with Rockwern Academy!

Thank you so much to our community, and we are so excited for the rest of the month!

If you are interested in our remaining April / May scheduling, contact [email protected] (OH) or [email protected] (MN).

04/14/2026

At the end of March, Urban Wilderness completed a Chicago canoe build at the Boys & Girls Club of Lake County in conjunction with Lake Forest Open Lands’ Center for Conservation Leadership.

The youth were very receptive to the canoe building process, and they were not afraid to dive in and get their hands dirty every step of the way. Thank you so much to the hard-working students; you made us smile every day, and it was a pleasure to get to know each of you! Additionally, we are so appreciative of the Boys & Girls Club staff who helped our team members throughout the build!

Thank you to Lake Forest Open Lands and Julia Lunn for your friendship and shared love of the outdoors! Urban Wilderness looks forward to all our future endeavors together!

04/09/2026

Construction on the Shuman Urban Wilderness Center at Aiken High School is in full swing!

Here are some updated images provided by the wonderful, Aaron Parker! The first photo is what the building site looks like at present, and the second photo is where we started in January. Progress is underway!

Make sure to check in with Urban Wilderness social media (Instagram & Facebook) and our website (link in bio) for continued updates.

04/07/2026

Introducing Urban Wilderness staff member, Silas Fulton!

Silas has been building boats with the team for three years and considers himself to be a “canoe enthusiast”! At builds, Silas provides never-ending humor, technical skill, and immense paddle knowledge. He is also a “goop” (polyurethane) expert!

Outside of Urban Wilderness, Silas is a deep-thinker who loves lifting weights and playing video games.

If you want to build a canoe with Silas, contact [email protected]!

04/02/2026

Check out this quick and simple way to help our program by supporting the Camping & Education Foundation!

We’re excited to share that the Camping & Education Foundation has been selected for Target Circle Guest Directed Giving! 🎉

If you’re in the Cincinnati or Northern Minnesota regions, you can support us with your Target Circle votes. Each time you shop at Target and use your Target account, you earn votes that you can direct to nonprofits like ours—at no extra cost to you!

It’s quick, easy, and makes a real impact on the youth we serve.

Vote here: https://www.target.com/circle/community-voting/

Thank you for your support!

04/02/2026

Happy Thursday! Here are more images from our build with the Zoo Academy! We had some unique spectators at this build; they were fairly busy eating, but we think they liked the boat!

Urban Wilderness can’t guarantee giraffes at every build, but we can guarantee a beautiful, functional canoe!

If you are interested in building with us, contact [email protected] (OH) or [email protected] (MN).

03/31/2026

Congratulations to the Cincinnati Zoo Academy on another successful build! Enjoy these images of the students celebrating their boat completion!

The Urban Wilderness team always loves working with the Zoo Academy students due to their curiosity, kindness, and shared passion for the natural world. Building a canoe next to giraffes is just an added bonus!

Contact [email protected] (OH) or [email protected] (MN) if you are interested in boatbuilding with us!

03/30/2026