Dunwoody Spotlight: Claire Hayes, Nature Lover

Name: Claire Waggenspack Hayes
Title: Executive Director,
Age: 57

Claire Hayes has taken to the outdoors naturally, even though her background was
in non-profit administration, rather than ecology. She's the executive director of the Dunwoody Nature Center, located inside Dunwoody Park on Roberts Drive, a pleasant space offering woodland trails, streams, display gardens, a picnic area, and a shaded playground. The park serves around 25,000 visitors each year, while 8,000 participate in the programs offered by the center.

Since taking coming on board with the center 10 years ago, Hayes says she's
become "much more outdoorsy and I love it." Much of her education has been on the job but she became a Master Gardener in 2003 and is getting certified in native plants.

Best thing about the job: I get to come to work in a park. Not many people can say that.
I also like the interaction with the kids. I love our amazing volunteers. We have a thousand of them! I like working with smart people that care about children and the earth.

Favorite part of the center: I love taking kids to play in the creek; having them turn over rocks, or find mushrooms on logs. All those things are so crucial to childhood and to understanding the natural world.

Funny story: One year, our theme for one of our children's camps was fairies, so we had "fairies" in the garden, in the trees and so on. Every day we'd start off by talking about what had happened the day before. One little girl named Gracie said, "I took a fairy home yesterday." The teacher said, "Really? How did the fairy travel?" Gracie looked at her as if it was so obvious and said, "In my nose!"

Future plans: I'd love to have a science lab with a microscope, to have a place for art supplies, and an outdoor teaching center. We also want to do more programming for adults. We've done this in the past but it's not been as successful as we'd have liked. We don't really know why; maybe we're not advertising in the right venues. We get discouraged for a while and then try again. A lot of people still don't know we are here.

Favorite Dunwoody restaurant: We have a picnic table by the creek we call our executive dining room. I also like [a Japanese restaurant on Chamblee-Dunwoody Road].

Favorite place to shop in Dunwoody: Farmer's Market, in Dunwoody Village.

What Dunwoody needs: More green space. Also, we don't have a town common. Having a city hall will be a piece of that. Anything they can do about traffic and congestion would be great. However, there is a lot of community spirit, which is great.

Plans for Thanksgiving: My family takes a boat (small enough to tow but big enough to sleep in) up to Chattanooga and docks it at the city marina just below the aquarium.
We're right there for the lighted boat parade on the Tennessee River. It's a lot of fun.