December 12, 2009 -- On Dec 12 I braved the frigid temperatures to embark on my first outing with the Sierra Club’s  New York City Inner City Outings group (see photos on Flickr).

I met four middle school students from PS 241, along with two Sierra Club leaders, and a fellow volunteer. We all piled into a large, comfortable van and made our way up the Major Deagan into Westchester to Stone Barns Farm and Agriculture Center.

We arrived a little early for the planned tour and used the time to take a short walk  onto the adjoining property in search of the cows we saw from our van as we approached the the Center.  We found them, along with one lone donkey, in the field.  After observing the animals for a while, we returned to Stone Barns for our tour.

November 21, 2009 -- Nine Kingsbridge International High School students and nine CampInteractive students joined eleven NYC ICO volunteers (­Emily, Mara, Kasey, Jyoti, Tamika and me, Karen)­ left at 9 AM on a fully-equipped coach for a fun day at Hook Mountain just north of the Nyack side of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The bus driver parked at the lot next to Casa del Mare and we got out, and leader Ray had our KIHS group circle around while leader Craig and CI set out on a siimilar route.  We said our names and got to see faces. Then in the circle we played a quick game of grab-any-pair-of-hands. When all straggling hands joined, we proceeded to untangle the human knot. Amazingly, in our circle of 16, the kinks smoothed out into three small circles. Leave it to mathematician Ray to produce that magic result!

November 14, 2009 -- ICO Certified Leaders Gary and Renee, as well as volunteers Peter and Kasey, took six students from PS 241 across the East River to Queens for a day trip on Nov 14. Heading south, they drove to the causeway between Queens and the Rockaway Peninsula, ending at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on Jamaica Bay.