A group of Casa de la Esperanza students, parents, and instructors pose by the Mission: Wolf sign

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Casa Gives Back at Mission:Wolf

Escrito en español más abajo. Written by Cottonwood Institute instructor M Tormasi. As the summer solstice neared, Cottonwood Institute instructors excitedly met up with folks from Casa de la Esperanza in Longmont. The camping trip ahead would include a no-lights-allowed night hike, a service project, and even meeting rescued wolves up close and personal. That’s… Read more »

Casa at Caribou Ranch

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Casa rides the Carousel of Happiness

Escrito en español más abajo. Written by Cottonwood Institute instructor Tucker Knight. See more photos here! A group of middle and high schoolers from the Casa de Esperanza program joined Cottonwood Institute for an adventure! The students were wrapping up a week-long program and concluded it with a hike and small celebration.  It was a… Read more »

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Nature Walks & Games with Casa de la Esperanza

Written by CI Field Instructor Aileen Palma (Escrito en español más abajo) Time flies when you’re having fun…Erin and Aileen had the pleasure of working with a group of students from Casa de La Esperanza for a short two weeks before we geared up for a culminating day hike. Although the students grew up together, this didn’t… Read more »

#ExploreOutside Session 2

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CASA students #ExploreOutside from home!

Cottonwood Institute has always promoted a life of learning, loving, and living nature. This means disconnecting from our ever-connected devices and reconnecting to the natural world through all of our senses. We encourage our students to observe animal behaviors, to listen to whispers of the wind through the trees, to feel the texture of the… Read more »

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The Kids at Casa de la Esperanza Were Bee-ing Amazing

Do you realize how much of modern human life depends on tiny buzzing insects?  Without bees many of our favorite foods would be gone or vastly more expensive.  And it’s not even just fruit we’d be missing: even *gasp* chocolate and coffee would be at risk.  And bee populations are declining at an alarming rate…. Read more »

Casa de la Esperanza at Beaver Ponds

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Casa de la Esperanza Students Spend a Weekend Exploring Beaver Ponds

Rushing creeks and energetic boys from Longmont’s Casa De La Esperanza housing community (Casa) crisscrossed the property of Beaver Ponds Environmental Education Center  this summer.  As part of CI’s Community Adventure Program (CAP), the boys explored the high-altitude evergreen forests, captured bugs, fed barnyard animals, spotted beavers, and made medicinal balms. At first glance, the swift… Read more »

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Casa de le Esperanza Explores Another World

A couple weeks ago, Cottonwood Institute teamed up with Casa de la Esperanza, a housing community in Longmont hosted by Boulder County Housing Authority, and engaged seven kids, one chaperon, and two Cottonwood Instructors in a weekend adventure exploring new lands.  As the bus pulled away from the city and entered the luscious green of the Boulder… Read more »