who we are, what we do

Kids In the Valley, Adventuring! (KIVA) is a free monthly family nature club for families in the Roanoke Valley.

Ashley and Chip Donahue, local parents to three wonderful children, read about the healthy benefits of time spent outside engaging in free play.  This included the incredible book, Last Child in the Woods- by Richard Louv.  The readings challenged them to develop a simple idea to get more families outside together and introduce families to fantastic local parks.

KIVA was started in January of 2008 and has since held monthly meetings around the Roanoke Valley.  KIVA focuses on three goals: Play, Nature Education and Volunteerism. Chip’s background as a 2nd grade Roanoke County school teacher helps in the education needs!

KIVA events showcase a different park each month, provide special speakers, and point families to local volunteer efforts. The meetings are always FREE. No childcare is ever provided, instead we encourage grown ups to “come prepared to make a memory with your child(ren)”.

KIVA also offers a free monthly newsletter which provides families with information about upcoming fun, family events around the area, as well as details about nature themed books, music, games. It also showcases information about other parks or chances to volunteer as a family.

Our motto is simple - KIVA - Play, Learn, Volunteer.

KIVA hosts three specific styles of meetings:

KIVA-PLAY focuses on free range play, just kids and grownups acting like….well, kids!

KIVA-Original has the best of all three missions, free range play, nature education and some volunteerism at the end of the meeting (usually in the form of cleaning up the park we are meeting in).

KIVA-Volunteer is an event allowing for children and adults alike to get a taste of the impact they can have in their own community. Past KIVA-Volunteer events have included cleaning out the Roanoke River, collecting litter in several local parks, and cleaning the top of Mill Mountain.

Contact us at KIVAinfo@gmail.com or 540-580-3015 (Chip) or 540-580-3547 (Ashley)

Send us an e-mail and we will add you to the monthly newsletter and e-mail list.