"Connection to nature is probably the most impactful part of what we do. It helps students care about the world they live in."
– Erica Brown, Director of Communications and IT, Muddy Sneakers
Discretionary Grant - North Carolina (May 2026) — On a wooded trail in North Carolina, a fifth-grader crouches beside a stream, dip net in hand. He pulls it up, eyes wide. Writhing in the mesh are creatures he's never seen before: crayfish, salamanders, tiny invertebrates that tell the story of the water's health. "We don't have these where I go," he says, breathless with discovery.
He'd always considered himself an outdoor kid. He plays in the backyard. He walks to the bus stop. But this… this is something entirely different.
For students across North Carolina, experiences like this are exactly what Muddy Sneakers was built to provide. Founded in Brevard in 2007, Muddy Sneakers partners with public schools to bring science curriculum to life outside the classroom. Instead of reading about ecosystems in a textbook or watching experiments on a screen, students step into the lesson itself: hanging bear bags from trees, rolling logs to discover what lives underneath, hiking trails and eating lunch in the open air.
Every day begins with an opening circle before heading out into the woods in small groups. "You can learn something from a textbook, you can read it, you can watch a video about it," Brown says. "But when you get out there and you're doing it, it's going to stick with you."
With support from the Walters Family Foundation, Muddy Sneakers is expanding this experience into North Carolina’s Triangle region of Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill. It aims to reach hundreds of additional students and lay the groundwork for long-term partnerships with local schools. What begins as a single field experience can grow into ongoing, curriculum-aligned outdoor learning year after year.
Working through schools is key. It removes barriers that often stand in the way: transportation, access and even perception.
“A lot of people don’t think that nature is for them,” Brown explains. “We help to normalize that by making it part of the school day, so everyone gets to have that experience.”
That sense of belonging can be transformative.
Annual evaluations from NC State University show that students who participate in repeated outdoor learning experiences demonstrate improved focus, stronger academic performance and better behavior in the classroom. Teachers often see a shift in students who struggle in traditional settings.
“When that student is outside,” Brown says, “it’s a totally different student. They just need that change of environment. This is how they learn.”
For some students, the impact lasts far beyond a single day.
One alumna, now studying birds in North Carolina, traced her path back to a childhood field experience. “Muddy Sneakers is why I do what I do,” she said.
Another is pursuing graduate studies at UNC Chapel Hill, inspired by the hands-on learning she experienced years earlier.
“If it weren’t for the support of the Walters Family Foundation,” Brown says, “these students would not have these opportunities. We are so incredibly grateful for their support.”
As Muddy Sneakers takes root in the Triangle, the impact is already beginning to grow: along forest trails, beside quiet streams and in the minds of students discovering, perhaps for the first time, that the natural world is theirs to explore.
