By Laurie Aubuchon

Jeanne De Waal has served as a volunteer farm and wilderness guide at Hidden Villa Preseve in Los Altos Hills for the past 12 years. “I feel connected to this place,” she said.

Each Thursday for the past 12 years, Jeanne De Waal, a volunteer farm and wilderness guide at Hidden Villa, has introduced schoolchildren to nature.

“I feel connected to this place,” said De Waal of the farm and wilderness preserve in Los Altos Hills. “I can hardly wait for Thursdays to come. We give a day (working at Hidden Villa), but I tell you, it’s the shortest day of the week.”

De Waal found this volunteer opportunity by chance when she accompanied her daughter to a Hidden Villa event in 1993. After viewing the beautiful area, she said aloud, “You know, I’d like to come back here often.”

Luckily, a staff member overheard.

“Stay right there,” the staff member said and disappeared, returning moments later with information about the next volunteer orientation.

De Waal had some concerns about the work. She’d been an executive secretary, not a teacher, and thought she might not qualify. But that did not turn out to be the case.

“The training program relaxed all those fears,” De Waal said.

On a typical Hidden Villa day, De Waal meets with fellow guides and staff in the morning before setting out for five hours with a small group of children, second- through sixth-graders. Shorter tours are offered for younger schoolchildren and the general public.

As a child, De Waal had the opportunity to live in national parks including Sequoia with its giant trees.

She said Hidden Villa has the same impact on the children she works with that nature has had on her - feelings of peacefulness and connection to the land and animals.

Some of her favorite moments at Hidden Villa include receiving thank-you notes from the children. “Thank you for showing me the world around me,” one note said.

When a second-grader dropped a carrot he’d pulled from the soil from the shock of finding an actual carrot in the ground, he asked, “How did that get there?”

De Waal enjoys the time she spends with fellow guides, staff and interns.

She recommends that everyone check out the next volunteer orientation. If you enjoy working with children, want to pass on respect and love of nature and like being around nice people, this may be the place for you, she said.

“These last few years at Hidden Villa have been some of the most fulfilling times of my life,” De Waal said.

Hidden Villa is recruiting volunteer guides for weekends or weekdays. The next orientation is scheduled Jan. 14.

Hidden Villa is located at 26780 Moody Road in Los Altos Hills. For more information, visit www.hiddenvilla.org.