A ‘community comes together for our children’ 

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice on September 15, 2026

President of the First Flight Rotary Club Luke Baer and Children and Youth Partnership Executive Director Sara Sampson at the ceremony. Credit: Kip Tabb

A crowd estimated to be at least 60 people were on hand for the ribbon cutting. Credit: Kip Tabb

Ada and Samson Haithcox beat out a rhythm at the Outdoor Learning Environment. Credit: Kip Tabb

At the Dolly Parton Butterfly Garden, a Silver-spotted Skipper. Credit: Kip Tabb

 

Children & Youth Partnership unveils its Outdoor Learning Environment

By Kip Tabb | Outer Banks Voice

With the ribbon cutting for its Outdoor Learning Environment, the Children & Youth Partnership for Dare County (CYP) has a new way to reach the families it serves. And on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 15, at least 60 people on hand for the ceremony.

“It has been a long-term dream of ours to be able to expand to the outdoors,” said CYP Executive Director Sara Sampson. “Having this wonderful space, it’s so much more than an outdoor learning environment. This is going be a place where families can come to us and our space, and we can connect them with other programs and services that we have.”

Located in an open space behind the CYP offices on Anais Dare Street in Manteo, the Outdoor Learning Environment includes an outdoor play kitchen, a musical play space and an art area.

Created in 1994 following the first Outer Banks State of the Child Conference, CYP works with families and children from birth through adolescence, offering “a variety of programs and services to ensure the healthy development of all children,” according to their website.

In his opening remarks at the ribbon cutting, First Flight Rotary Club President Luke Baer recalled the project’s origins when he asked Sampson, “If you had $10,000, what would you do?”

Grants from the Rotary District office and local Rotarian contributions probably totaled around $8,000, Baer told the Voice.

“But it was more than that, it was so much more than that,” he said in his comments. “It was at least 500 volunteer hours to do the work that you see here. There were financial contributions from all around the community.”

Baer described the Rotary themes of uniting for good and creating a lasting impact and noted that “we all came together to unite for something for the betterment of our community.”

Among its other programs, CYP sponsors Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. In recognition of the contributions she made to children everywhere. The CYP Butterfly Garden that is next to the Outdoor Learning Environment was dedicated to Parton.

As she finished her comments at the ribbon cutting, Sampson observed that, “We’re not just celebrating the opening of this space. We’re celebrating what happens when a community comes together for our children.”