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Responding to studies showing that programs for children are likely to boost use of state parks and trails, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources introduced the Minnesota Naturalist Corps in 2010. According to the DNR, the initiative helped to increase public participation in programs and events from about 220-thousand in 2009 to more than 285-thousand in 2013. As Don Lee reports, the Corps is made up of entry-level naturalists who offer new interpretive programs. [Read Transcript...]

When Minnesota playwright Jeffrey Hatcher was eleven years old, he created his own production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet for his fifth grade class in Steubenville, Ohio. Hatcher does not claim the staging was good, but he does say the experience was transformative. Now he’s recalling it all in a one-man show, Jeffrey Hatcher’s Hamlet, which he performed in Blue Earth, Staples, Brainerd, Duluth, Moorhead, Cambridge and Dawson in March 2014, with Legacy Amendment funding. Don Lee reports on the motives that led Hatcher to create the new show and take it on the road. [Read Transcript...]

Young adults and their children are using parks, trails and wilderness areas less than they did prior to the 1990s. As Don Lee reports, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources hopes to attract new visitors to state parks by introducing programs that teach basic outdoor skills. [Read Transcript...]

The Givens Foundation for African-American Literature established a community reading campaign, Givens Black Books, aiming to increase engagement in the literary arts in the Twin Cities' African-American community. Funded by the Legacy Amendment, the annual campaign has featured appearances by and discussions of authors Walter Mosley, Jewell Parker Rhodes, J. California Cooper and, in 2014, writer/actor Hill Harper. Reporter Don Lee visited a Givens Black Books panel discussion in St. Paul. [Read Transcript...]