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A Child’s World of Jamestown is doing its part to fight the rise in childhood obesity.

The day care is using a Preventing Obesity by Design grant from the Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation to create an outdoor natural area to encourage creative, outdoor play. The Guilford County Partnership for Children is working with A Child’s World and two other child care facilities to create such areas.

Deirde Hoffman of the partnership said the nonprofit has been guiding the day care through this process, attending training with staff at the N.C. State College of Design and helping create the space.

“It has been a very exciting process with a lot of hard work and sweat from lots of parents, teachers and, especially, the director, Marge (Akins),” Hoffman said.

“We hope that what we create at A Child’s World will spark other child care facilities as well as families to bring their children outdoors more, connect with nature more and use all the resources that are naturally outside for discovery,” she said.

“It’s something that’s always been important to me,” Akins said. She said there’s a movement called “nature deficit” that encourages kids to get outside and explore more.

The outdoor space, filled with flower beds, fruit bushes, a bike path, a tepee and, soon, arbor swings, will offer the kids a way to create their own worlds and explore the natural world around them, she said.

There’s a lot the director would like to see in the area.

Akins would like to put in planting boxes with Plexiglass so that students can see the roots and learn how plants grow and a planting bed that’s on a table so children in wheelchairs can participate, too.

All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm has offered to create a butterfly garden, and Wild Birds Unlimited of High Point has offered to build a bird blind so children can take a peek at birds that visit.

“It’s an ongoing thing,” Akins said. “It will never end. That’s the beauty of it. We can keep adding things as we get them and see what needs to be incorporated.”

The staff spent a year preparing for the project, training and deciding how to create the space.

“It’s been amazing to watch the parents help,” Akins said. She said it has been a good way to build the children’s self-esteem by knowing that their parents were willing to help.

Besides encouraging kids to get moving and inspiring creativity, Akins said the outdoor area will teach kids nutrition. Many flower beds in the area have been planted with vegetables.

It’ll also introduce a respect for nature. Akins said she has seen children throw trash in the creek near the day care and she wondered how they could do that.

Then she realized, “They probably don’t have fond memories of doing anything in a creek.” So why would they respect it?

Akins said the grant was just more than $4,000, but the project is expected to cost $70,000.

“So there’s still a deficit there, even with my creativity,” she said. The project needs more mulch, trees and vines.

Donations may be sent to A Child’s World, 5121 Mackay Road, Jamestown, NC 27282. A ribbon-cutting will be June 26.

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com