A friend of William and Sarah Reding leaned into the window of the truck, right across Wil, and said to Sarah Reding: "Sarah, will you give my best to Wil?"
Wil Reding hoots with laughter to recall it. The friend didn't recognize Reding in costume, or in persona. Wil and Sarah Reding had just finished one of their outdoor performances of Prairie Pete and Miss Sarah. They were dressed in the clothing of the 1800s, and had reenacted the experiences of a couple entering the Midwest Territory from New York to establish a homestead. Encouraging audience participation, they demonstrated various tools and artifacts from the time period, and always within the context of nature.
"I guess I was pretty convincing." Reding grins into his long white beard. He and wife Sarah have more than 72 years of combined experience in environmental and historical education, he says with pride. The two have a show-on-the-road they call
Rent a Rambling Naturalist. The couple shares their knowledge about history and nature with all age groups, from schools to nature centers to senior centers through the voices of a range of characters.
Yas Ennya Oyaka is a woodsman who shares his knowledge about Midwest ecosystems. Marsh Mallow Man knows a lot about the Great Lakes wetlands. A.E. Claus is a Father Christmas of the 1890s who knows no greater gifts than the ones we receive from Mother Earth and teaches his listeners how to protect them. Sometimes, however, Wil Reding is just himself--an educator and a naturalist on a stroll through the woods. Sarah does most of the marketing, he says, and he usually does the presentations.
Reding will be himself, an interpretive naturalist, on an excursion called "Walk Toward 100 Miles," beginning at Kalamazoo Nature Center (KNC) on July 26, and ending, with a progression of daily 16-mile or 6.5-hour segments, at Lake Michigan on July 31. The public (18 years and older) is invited to walk with him and learn about the environment along the way. They will be transported back to the
Kalamazoo Nature Center each evening. Cost is $200 for KNC members, $240 for non-members.
"I'm going to be 67 this summer," Reding says cheerily, "and I've had a heart attack, several back surgeries, a mechanical hip, hammer toe and bunions--but I'm still walking." He shrugs. "You just put one foot in front of the other."
Reding started Rent a Rambling Naturalist in 1988, initially as a sideline to his more traditional teaching jobs. With a bachelor's degree in biology from Eastern Michigan University, and a master's in environmental education from Michigan State University, he lived in the village of Ortonville and worked at a camp as an outdoor education consultant. His wife, Sarah, worked there as well, but when the camp acted in what the Redings felt was disregard for the environment, logging trees on the acreage, they decided to look for a more suitable place to live and work.
"We saw that Kalamazoo Nature Center had a job opening," Reding says. "We both applied for it."
Both? Kalamazoo Nature Center administration asked the couple what would happen if one partner gets the job and the other doesn't, but the Redings weren't worried. They are a team effort. Both were well qualified, both were eventually hired. Sarah joined the Nature Center part-time, Wil full-time, but now, they have switched places. Wil has devoted himself entirely to the naturalist business, while Sarah is vice president of conservation stewardship at the Nature Center.
"I had been teaching for a while at a charter school in Grand Rapids," Reding says, "but the classes got too big. I wasn't enjoying it, and Sarah encouraged me to start a business. I'd seen Denny Olson, a naturalist in Minnesota, doing characters for a living. There he was, dressed up and sitting under a tree, whittling and telling stories. People went to him rather than the other way around. So here I am making a living, just me dressed up in funny clothes." Reding laughs.
Indeed, his message hits home with many. "I often talk about the eight necessities of life in my presentations. So what do you think they are? Water, air, soil, sunlight, food, shelter, space. And love. If you have these eight, you have everything."
Reding pauses, thinks for a moment. His blond dog Lily bounds over and leans against his knee, and Reding pats her head, rubs her ear. "Nobody believes that at first," he says. "But it's true. That's all you need. I've taught college classes, and I've asked students to list everything they own. Oh, I can't do that, I don't know every single thing I own! they cry out. Yet you hear college students always telling you how they have nothing …"
One of the Redings' presentations is about teaching survivor skills. It's based on the eight necessities. "If you start with nothing, what would you do first?" he prompts. "What do you need first? What plants are edible? I teach foraging, and I teach people to think about how they can use what's at hand. You can beat a coin to death and make it into a fishing lure. I teach them how to start a fire in different ways."
Another popular presentation is about the 1,000-mile walk that the Redings made to retrace the steps of Wil Reding's hero, John Muir, in his 1867 journey. That was a long-held dream for Reding, and he points to a black and white image of Muir on his kitchen wall, then rolls up his right sleeve, revealing a tattoo on his upper arm. It is a map of Muir's--and later the Redings'--journey. "I only show it at our presentations."
Reding says he has everything, all eight necessities for a good life, but there's always room for another long walk. The Redings are planning a 500-mile walk across France in 2016 with family to celebrate Wil Reding's 70th birthday.
Rent a Rambling Naturalist is available for general naturalist services, natural history, nature excursions, teacher workshops and staff training, group building activities, as motivational speakers. Sessions cost, on average, between $300 to $500. The Redings can be reached at 269.343.1886 or sarahrarnwil@att.net.
Zinta Aistars is creative director for Z Word, LLC, and editor of the literary magazine, The Smoking Poet. She lives on a farm in Hopkins.