Go on safari as a family

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BY BOB REEVES/Lincoln Journal Star

Zach Cypher, 7, and his dad arrived at Elliott School around 6:30 on a Tuesday evening.

“Now we’re looking for a wildflower garden,” dad Bob Cypher said. “Do you think that’s it over there?”

Zach ran toward a spot on the west side of the school building where pink hollyhocks and milkweed blooms stood out from a thicket of greenery. 

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Bob Cypher and son Zach, 7, visit the wildflower garden at Elliott Elementary while participating in the Lincoln Safari. (WILLIAM LAUER/Lincoln Journal Star)

Bob Cypher and son Zach, 7, visit the wildflower garden at Elliott Elementary while participating in the Lincoln Safari. (WILLIAM LAUER/Lincoln Journal Star)

“There’s the post — get on it, bud!” Cypher said. He was referring to a small post planted at the edge of the flower garden, with an embossed image on the top.

Zach opened a canvas bag and took out a well-used spiral-bound notebook. He and his dad thumbed through the book until they found the pages labeled “Elliott Elementary School,” then Zach placed one of the pages on the top of the post and rubbed it with a crayon.

An image of a boy riding a bicycle appeared. 

His dad read what the book said about the site: “Elliott is one of the many schools that have a garden on school grounds. These outdoor classrooms make learning about other living things more meaningful and fun. Take a look at the plants in this garden.  Do you see insects on them?  What signs of insects do you see?”

Zach examined a tall plant next to the rubbing post and discovered a weird-looking red insect with wings. He looked some more and found another of the strange bugs.

Then he looked at another plant and discovered tiny holes in the leaves, likely signs that insects had been feeding there.

They explored around the small garden some more, and made some other finds: Pieces of a birdhouse apparently made by a student, but no longer in one piece; flowers and leaves of many different colors and shapes; and several other types of insects.

Zach and his dad were doing exactly what the planners of the Lincoln Safari program intended:  Getting outdoors and experiencing nature together.

“We’ve been to 10 or 12 of these sites so far,” Bob Cypher said. On Tuesday evenings they drop mom off at a Bible study group, then Zach and his dad have dinner in a restaurant, then visit a Lincoln Safari site. 

The little booklet identifies 35 different locations around Lincoln where parents and kids can experience the great outdoors. 

The program started last winter, and by the end of June, 4,463 groups (mostly families) had signed up, said Lucinda Faunce, an educator with the Lincoln Children’s Zoo and one of the coordinators of Lincoln Safari. A total of 9,723 adults and 10,347 children have participated, she said.

Zach and his dad have had fun at places they already knew a lot about — such as the Children’s Zoo, where Bob Cypher works as a part-time zookeeper — but also some places they’d never been before, such as Elliott School’s wildflower garden and Shoemaker Marsh on 27th Street, home of the endangered Salt Creek Tiger Beetle.

Some of the places they enjoyed most were Iron Horse Park, next to the train depot in Lincoln Haymarket, the Veterans Memorial Garden in Antelope Park and Oak Lake Park. In each location, participants receive clues to find a post where they make a rubbing to prove that they’ve been there.  At some sites, they also find directions on how to get small prizes, such as a toy, candy or a book.

Zach remembered when he and his dad had to walk on a bridge to the island in Oak Lake to find the rubbing post. They discovered a big tree that had been uprooted in a storm, and Zach’s dad retrieved a fishing bobber that had caught in the branches.

Recalling that incident, Zach broke into a silly grin.“You stole it,” he told his dad.

“No, I didn’t,” Bob Cypher replied. “It was lost, and we found it.”

The greatest value of the Safari program, he said, is the opportunity for father-son bonding. “I enjoy having time with my son, exploring with him, and seeing things through his eyes,” he said.  “He sees the little details that I would just overlook.”

“I like just playing with my dad,” Zach said.

Other Lincoln families feel the same way.

For the Tinius family — parents Amy and Mike and daughter Nicole, 4 — the Safari has been a catalyst for some quality time together.

“What we’ve found is that for a 4-year-old, every one of these places is a new adventure,” Amy Tinius said. “When we find a post, she squeals with delight.”  They’ve  spent four to six hours at a single site, and gone back to some sites more than once because they enjoyed them so much.

Last winter, the Tiniuses visited the Safari site in Pioneers Park while there was snow on the ground. They discovered the sled run. “We went sledding there five times,” she said.

Recently they visited Wyuka Cemetery, another Safari site. At the lake near the O Street entrance gate, Nicole sang a little song, and ducks and geese “gathered all around her, like the Pied Piper,” her mother said.

They had fun trekking among the tombstones and reading the inscriptions. They made their own rubbing of the musical notes on the stone for singer Gordon McRae, who died in 1986. They’re from “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”

“I like doing this because we’re with the family, and out seeing Lincoln like we haven’t done before,” Mike Tinius said.

“It’s pretty fun, when you find the post and you follow the clues,” Nicole added.

Her Safari book filled with rubbings was falling apart from heavy use.

Both the Tiniuses and the Cyphers were especially impressed with the post in the Veterans Memorial Garden. The clue says it’s by a monument “that honors some that are not like the others.”

Turned out it was a monument to service dogs who had died in action. The rubbing was a pair of paw prints.

“That brought tears to our eyes,” Bob Cypher said.

Faunce noted that many participants in the program said they had discovered places they would have never seen. 

“We wanted to encourage families to have an adventure,” she said. Participants also have the chance to go to many outdoor events throughout the summer, where they can win additional prizes. 

Four women — Faunce; Mimi Wickless, education director at the Children’s Zoo; Virginia Opocensky, former head of children’s services for Lincoln City Libraries; and Donna Necas of Sign Post marketing — worked to put the program together.

It had support from the Healthy Families Play Outside Partnership made up of local educational, recreational and environmental agencies.

“We’re trying to find funding to do it next year, with all new sites,” Faunce said.

Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.