36 Catching up with...(continued) Visit our archives All prior editions of Leading Healthy Change in Our Communities are available online at www.HealthyNewsWorks.org. Mike Weilbacher 2013 Health Leader Mike Weilbacher is executive director of the Schuylkill Valley Center for Environmental Educa- tion in Philadelphia. The center’s programs include nature trails, classes on the environment, and care for injured wildlife. Mr. Weilbacher continues to create new programs at the Schuylkill Valley Center for Environmental Education. He even started a preschool. The young students spend more than half the day outdoors. They go outside when the weather is cold, snowy, hot, or rainy. “The teacher says there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing,” Mr. Weilbacher says. The center plans to add a kindergarten class for the 2017–18 school year. In 2015, Mr. Weilbacher and his staff celebrated the 50th anniversary of the center with a year of special events. They even had a party in the forest and buried a time capsule with predic- tions from Philadelphia environmental leaders about what the environment will look like on July 1, 2040. That’s the date when the capsule will be opened. The center now is working with doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia who will start prescribing time in nature for kids. “Nature can heal you,” Mr. Weilbacher says. Being outdoors can help children who have asthma, depression, or other health problems, he says. Mr. Weilbacher still enjoys his job and learning about nature. Recently, he says, a coyote visited the 300-acre center. The staff saw coyote tracks in the snow, but only one person has seen the animal. “It’s really cool,” says Mr. Weilbacher. —By Healthy Outlook staff St. Raymond of Penafort Catholic School