Today we’d like to introduce you to Meredith Florkey.
Hi Meredith , we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Meredith Florkey is the Weaver & Executive Director at Wildflower Child & Family Center as well as the
owner of Ohio Naturally LLC. In the education field for 27 years, Meredith became a nature-based educator 16 years ago in the Miami Valley,
Meredith holds a BS in Secondary Education from Bowling Green State University, an MA
Certificate in Early Childhood Education Leadership & Advocacy from UD, and an MA in Nature-Based
Early Childhood Education from Antioch University New England.
Meredith serves on the Miami Valley
Leave No Child Inside Board and co-founded the Ohio Nature-Based Early Childhood Educators
Collaborative as her leadership project for the Partners for the Environment Leadership Cohort.
Meredith’s recent projects include founding the Nature Preschool at Learning Tree Farm in 2016, creating
the Big Map Out! with Agraria Center for Regenerative Practices in 2020, embedding nature class in the K-1
in the Centerville City School districts in 2022 and founding Wildflower Child & Family Center, located at
Carriage Hill MetroPark with its Grand Opening this fall! Bringing community members together around the
topic on a deeper nature connection for children and families leads the work at Ohio Naturally too, where
Meredith leads high energy workshops for teachers and administrators all over Ohio, consults with centers
striving to become more nature-based and those starting new centers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
With a consistent vision, the trick has been to identify organizations that are aligned with that vision for all children. I am an advocate for shared leadership, mentoring, and growing together, so some friction has come through the years if organizations adhere to top down hierarchy with little room for vision and growing. Small non-profit work can be challenging but extraordinarily rewarding when folks include many voices and commit to that big vision together. In both early childhood education and leadership-it’s all about the process and the journey-it may zig and zag but together we can find our way down the path towards that goal!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are asking the big question, “What if every child in the Miami Valley had a deep connection to nature?” By asking a question and activating all of our stakeholders, families, and partners in this question, we avoid having a dusty vision on the top of our letterhead and are able to wonder what our world would be like in that reality. Then we are able to create a trail map that helps us move together towards that vision.
One way that we move toward that vision is the creation of Wildflower Child & Family Center in 2024. WCFC is a high-quality nature-based preschool and child care center located at Carriage Hill MetroPark in Huber Heights, Ohio. The only nature-based child care center of it’s kind to welcome children who qualify for publicly funded childcare and are Preschool Promise Partners. We serve children who are ages 2-5 in a variety of programs. We seek to provide programming for families who need full time care in our community so they can work or go to school.
We are so proud of our Get OUTside Gear program that provides rain pants, rain coat, snow pants, winter boots, and mittens for every child. If a child outgrows gear-we are prepared with the next size up. This breaks down a big barrier for families as we go outside everyday it is above zero degrees in rain, snow, and sunshine on the 900 beautiful acres of Carriage Hill MetroParks. Children are able to experience the historic farm, pastures, creeks, ponds, lakes, forests and meadows of our beautiful Ohio environment and have the support of 3 teachers for every 15 children.
Research shows that this deep connection to nature in a responsive and high-quality program increases physical and mental health as well as cognitive and academic skills and promotes a strong preference to protect and sustain our natural world into adulthood.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
We are always looking for volunteers in the area with special talents around the environment and gardening. As a 501c3 non-profit organization we are always “Friend-raising” for funds to help support our cause. In 2025, our special project will be the creation of a 3 year old scholarship; Preschool Promise, our valued partners, help support 4 year olds through tuition assistance in our community. This leaves 3 year old families to cobble together tuition for our high quality program. Interested parties can donate directly here https://www.wildflowercfc.org/support or contact Executive Director, Meredith Florkey at meredith@wildflowercfc.org.
We are also actively looking for other early childhood educators, childcare centers, preschools, and family child care providers to partner with in our area. Our sister organization, Ohio Naturally LLC and Wildflower Child & Family Center have a multi-year plan to partner with programs in our area to increase nature connection at all of our spaces in the service of our BIG vision!
Pricing:
- Pricing can be found on our website.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wildflowercfc.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wildflowernbece/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildflowercfc1
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meredith-florkey-a2473aa1/
