The Cal State Fullerton Arboretum held its third Evening Stroll: After Hours at the Arboretum event of the year Friday to welcome attendees with live jazz music, fruit tasting and a variety of children’s activities for one last summer hurrah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kymberly Pietsch, president of\u00a0 Friends of the Fullerton Arboretum, a volunteer based support group, said they have these events four times a year with this one being the last in the summer series before the cooler Southern California weather sets in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have them during the summer because it’s still light. So people can come to the arboretum in the evening,\u201d Pietsch said. \u201cThey can come after the heat of the day has passed and enjoy the evening light and stroll among the gardens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group holds events and does outreach for the arboretum. It\u2019s events like this that Pietsch hopes bring more awareness to the arboretum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want more students, especially students, to know about the arboretum, to come and visit it and to use it, to enjoy it and to use it for their enrichment,\u201d Pietsch said.<\/p>\n
Director of the arboretum, Joya Salas, also shares this sentiment in hopes that Titans take advantage of the fresh and free environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt provides a really nice respite for students, and we have like a million benches,\u201d Salas said. \u201cWe’re improving our Wi-Fi soon, so hopefully more students come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside of events like this one, the arboretum offers a place where people can learn about nature and relax. Seasonal flower fields bloom among the 26 acre space and feature rare and ripe fruits that are harvested every Thursday. Additionally, Salas said the arboretum has a huge propagation program and plants for sale.<\/p>\n
Friday’s event took place from 5-7 p.m. and offered a live jazz band from the CSUF School of Music. As Salas has only been director for four months, this was her first After Hours at the Arboretum event and denotes the special environment that this event fosters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Engaging Environmental Experiences Program (E3), is the internship program the arboretum offers CSUF students. Members\u00a0 provided samples of valencia orange, white sapote, orient pear, jaboticaba and pomegranate \u2014 each harvested from the arboretum. Samples of the arboretum\u2019s wild water were also available.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing that we’re kind of famous for, it’s very silly, but it’s our wild water,\u201d Pietsch said. \u201cWe have this special recipe of water with different herbs and fruit from the garden that go into the water and it makes something very delicious.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the children\u2019s garden, volunteers Debbie Williamson and Terry Stevenson educated kids about the arboretum and animals living there, while encouraging them to explore.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that’s what we were talking about, the red ear sliders, those are the turtles that are in the pond over there,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cThey\u2019re invasive species, not supposed to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arts and crafts tables were set up for the children to participate in, furthering the education of the arboretum while partaking in kid-friendly activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo over here we are just making little \u2018I spy’ telescopes or monoscopes,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cWe want them to use them to explore the children’s garden.\u201d<\/p>\n
CSUF students were also able to enjoy the evening\u2019s festivities. Anjali Black, a first-year psychology major, and Carver Diaz, a first-year biology major, decided to attend after hearing about the event from a professor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we first got here, we tried the fruit. It was all really good,\u201d Black said. \u201cThe tea that they had, I don’t remember what it was called, that was delicious.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Black and Diaz weren\u2019t the only students to enjoy what the event had to offer as a plethora of other Titans found their way to the arboretum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI really like how they use the things that they grow here to make the drinks and have the fruit samplings,\u201d said fourth-year studio art major Zarina Ortega. \u201cI think that\u2019s really cool.\u201d<\/p>\n
This night\u2019s After Hours at the Arboretum didn\u2019t just provide a rare opportunity for people to visit the arboretum after close, but a chance to enjoy nature and learn more about the environment and its offerings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cal State Fullerton Arboretum held its third Evening Stroll: After Hours at the Arboretum event of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471474,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[185429,163,165,164,23262,185430,21059,2268],"class_list":["post-471473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-after-hours-at-the-arboretum","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-arboretum","tag-campus-activties","tag-fruit","tag-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}