The benefits of playing in the dirt: An interview with leader Bill Vanderberg

Sierra Club Leader Bill Vanderberg and his student volunteers from the Club's Building Bridges to the Outdoors received the Youth Volunteer Group of the Year from Yosemite National Park in October. The awards are given to outstanding volunteers for exemplary service in the park. Vanderberg's group served in a work party to improve park trails and facilities. How does he connect the Club with kids? Here's an interview with Vanderberg that first appeared in the October 2017 issue of the Central Group Newsletter.

Bill has worked tirelessly to engage underserved youth in outdoor environmental experiences from which they gain a sense of ownership of and responsibility to their natural environment. Bill set up eco clubs at Dorsey and Crenshaw high schools with grants from the Sierra Club and has led backpacking trips for Dorsey and Crenshaw students to Yosemite and led trail maintenance activities. He was also instrumental in creating the Kenneth Hahn State Recreational Area in Baldwin Hills, part of the Central Group. 

How long have you been volunteering?

I started volunteering as a Scout leader 25 years ago when my oldest son joined the Cub Scouts. I started working with the Sierra Club in 1999 when I joined the Trail Crew of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force, doing trail maintenance on Saturday mornings.

What is the most meaningful thing you’ve accomplished as a volunteer?

Introducing literally several thousand children to the outdoors, most from traditionally underserved communities of color. This was accomplished first in Scouting, then with the Crenshaw High School Eco Club, and most recently with Angeles Chapter and Inspiring Connections Outdoors.

What’s that?

Inspiring Connections Outdoors is a community outreach program of the Angeles Chapter that provides opportunities for urban youth and adults to explore, enjoy, and protect the natural world.

Anything else that you consider a major accomplishment as a volunteer?

I participated, with the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force Trail Crew, in building all of the hiking trails in the Kenneth Hahn State Recreational Area (which we have continued to maintain over the years). I am also a board member of the Baldwin Hills Regional Conservation Authority and one of our responsibilities is to acquire additional surrounding land to add to the park, in accordance with the “One Great Park Master Plan” for future park expansion (on which I served on the Executive Committee).

One last question: What’s the value in taking young people into nature?

We have a responsibility to preserve nature for future generations and that won’t happen unless we expose our children now to what nature is. This is particularly important for communities of color because in coming years they will become the majority and will have the choice of deciding to preserve these spaces. They need to experience what we later ask them to save.

Will McWhinney is a leader and instructor for the Wilderness Training Course and an activist with the Angeles Chapter's Central Group.