The Institute at Renfrew, Inc.

The Institute at Renfrew seeks to engage school students and citizens at large in an effort to educate, entertain and inspire. The organization's focus areas include environmental education and historic preservation. Activities are developed around helping people develop a relationship with the regional natural and cultural history in a way that invites curiosity, exploration and a quest for understanding.

Our school program series offers experiences that serve as seeds for stewardship behavior, inspired by place based learning over seven years of elementary school participation. Adults are engaged through lectures, workshops, field excursions and citizen science programs in ways that contribute to individual knowledge as well as community knowledge of the natural world.

A longitudinal stream water quality monitoring program headquartered at Renfrew Institute, now in its 13th year, serves as a snapshot of stream health in the East and West branches of the Antietam Creek, a part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Additionally, citizen scientists have informally recorded local bird sightings and wild plant observations. Conversations are currently underway to formalize a citizen scientist phenology project in a partnership between Renfrew Institute and the Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

On the history side, a group of 20 volunteers staff an historic garden work corps that maintains a traditional historic PA German Garden on the site of Renfrew Museum and Park. The garden is used as a teaching hub, and also serves the visiting public as a destination to learn about the Pennsylvania German inhabitants of this region. Excess produce from the garden is shared with the local Human Services office and the Methodist Church based Lunch Place.

The Institute values partnerships and efforts to engage the public in ways that invite action.