GULF SHORES, Ala. – When Kelly Reetz, Naturalist at Gulf State Park, looks out of her office window, in her mind she sees troops of kids cycling through one of three venues of learning and activities.

And she gets excited.

Right now she sees workmen putting finishing touches on a new 2,000-square-foot education building and an amphitheater that will serve as a classroom and entertainment venue.

The education building will be open next week while the amphitheater is waiting on some benches which are still in production.

While that goes on, Reetz is busy in her office preparing for the day when school kids are on site.

“We have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We are going to build some new programs and work with the local teachers to find the kind of things that they would like to see that would enhance some of their teaching. We’ll talk with the high school students, too, and their teachers and work with them, too.”

The original idea a few years ago was to build a small Nature Center in the park’s campground and a larger one with classroom space on the north side of the beach road across from the beachside pavilion.

“This was such a success here that they decided not to do the building over there,” she said.

That was fine, but the popular Nature Center in the park was too small for most school groups.

“When schools come they bring the entire kindergarten all at one time,” Reetz said. “That’s a lot of kids. You can’t put that many kids in here so we’ve always had to break them up.”

When the facility is done, she’ll have three areas where learning can happen at the same time.

“With the school kids, when they come, we’ll be able to have class in there, class in the Nature Center and class in the amphitheater,” Reetz said. Now with these other facilities, one of us will be able to be here in the Nature Center and do a nature time. Another one of us will be able to be in the classroom and do specific education based off of state curriculum that will enhance, on their grade level, specific environmental education. We might talk about conservation and tie it in with science.”

The concrete around the amphitheater has imprints of footprints of the various animals from the area from alligators to great blue herons. On the end of each row of benches are impressions of many of those same animals.

“Then I can say ‘I want the alligator bench and the dragonfly bench to stand up,’” Reetz said. “And then those students will be taken to their program and the next set of students can go to their program. And a third set will stay and have theirs. Then they’ll rotate.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be awesome.”

Reetz is really stoked about a program called “Growing Up Wild” and explained as she turned the pages of the instruction book.

“Our plan is to have it available once every two weeks or so for our local pre-schools,” she said. “They have a chance to paint, they have a chance to draw. It teaches 2-, 3- and 4-year-old counting skills, shapes skills, all in nature, all things that you would find in nature. And it includes sometimes a walk.”

But Reetz also has some programs in mind for kids of all ages.

“I have these programs I’ve been sitting on, waiting,” she said. “It has history, English and all kinds of things they can do with it. So with the help of the teachers I can put together some really interesting programs that they can use.

“I also have some new programs for high schools that teaches how conservation came to be. History and science mixed together to help give the students an appreciation for why it’s important.”

She also has a winter chockfull of events for snowbirds that include nature walks on the beach, park trails and even on the state fishing pier.

And she has a fishing project in mind that she hopes to enlist snowbird volunteers that will help her summer fishing programs.

“The Department of Fisheries donated fishing rods, 20 fishing rods and I grow my own bait, mealy worms,” Reetz said. “This winter I’m hoping the snowbirds are going to help me make some fish habitat right underneath the piers right out here (in the campground) and it’ll draw the pan fish, bream and sun fish in.

“By the time the summer rolls around, I’ll have fishing for the summer kids and we’ll be able to fish once a week.”

And while the final touches are added to the classroom and amphitheater just outside her window, Reetz is inside planning for the day when she can share the joy of nature by putting all the materials and programs she’s been saving to work..

“You learn better when you touch,” she added, “than by just reading out of a book or being told something. It’s going to be a blast.”