May 8, 2013 By Jeremy Farbman 3 min read

The Outdoor Classroom is a nature center in Boyce Mayview Park, Upper St. Clair, next to the swimming pool and recreation center.

At a recent event, “Cache In, Trash Out,” with the help of many volunteers, The Outdoor Classroom was able to dispose of a large pile of garbage and debris left behind from an old farm that was on the site from the 1940s to the 1980s. Metal was hauled up from the bottom of a hill and placed in a huge Dumpster provided by the Township of Upper St. Clair for the event.

Volunteers started to come at 9:45 a.m. and finished at around 2 p.m. Due to the volunteers’ hard work, the pile was cleared in a much shorter amount of time than anticipated. More than 45 people came to the event, and most of them were geocachers. In case you aren’t familiar with geocaching, it is a large ongoing treasure hunt of sorts.

Participants place small objects in sealed plastic containers hidden in nature or urban areas and leave hints on the geocache website, www.geocaching.com. Other geocachers can look on the website to see these clues and search for the treasure. If they find it, they can sign their name as a record of their accomplishment on a piece of paper inside the container, or replace the item with something different. The Outdoor Classroom contains more than 30 locations where geocaches are hidden. If you would like to try geocaching, this is a good place to start.

If you want to get involved with the Outdoor Classroom in another way, there are still many available activities coming soon. Some of the programs in May include:

• The Garden Gang volunteer group, where one can help with gardening in the park, 4-8 p.m. May 21.

• On May 22, a seminar is being held to help people learn simple ways to relax. This will go on from 6:30-8:30 p.m.

• Every month at dusk, there is a hike under the full moon on the night that it occurs. The next date for this is May 25.

• Finally, from 6-8 p.m. May 31 there is a children’s class that will teach about reptiles and amphibians through hands-on activities.

Learn about these programs and more at www.theoutdoorclassroompa.org or by contacting Jessica Kester, program manager, at Jessica@theoutdoorclassroompa.org or John Masilunas, program administer, at John@theoutdoorclassroompa.org.

Jeremy Farbman is an eighth-grader at Jefferson Middle School in Mt. Lebanon.