Bayer, Bay Hero

Save The Bay is honored to be a 2023 Bayer Fund Grant Recipient for our environmental education program, which brings local students to San Francisco Bay shoreline.   

If you’ve been lucky enough to have experienced outdoor education as a kid, you most likely have a specific memory that has stuck with you through the years – maybe getting the courage to put mud on your face or taste the leaf of a wild plant – or watching a bird of prey circle above or swoop down on its prey.

What’s coming up for you? These moments open a door to learning that can only be found outside.

We are grateful for Bayer Fund’s support of our Bay Discovery in Shoreline Classrooms program, and our School Bus Stipend Initiative in particular. Funding for transportation to field trips is the most significant barrier to participation, and this grant increases access to our field trips for students at schools who could not otherwise attend.

“Through Bayer Fund’s giving, we’re enabling and strengthening organizations that are working to make real, sustainable impacts in their local communities across the United States,” said Al Mitchell, President of Bayer Fund. “Programs, like Save The Bay’s Bay Discovery in Shoreline Classrooms, inspire future generations for careers in the high-demand STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) field, and we’re proud to provide our support.” 

For the last 25 years, Save The Bay has been bringing students out to the shoreline of San Francisco Bay to learn about the heart of our home and take part in restoring it.  

Our field trips inspire a personal connection with the Bay and a desire to protect it, while students engage in hands-on restoration and learn about STEM concepts, environmental threats, and climate change. We integrate discussion and reflection—calling back to the day’s theme chosen by the teacher, and concepts and ideas discussed in education activities.

This provides students a way to engage, hands-on, with the concepts they’re exploring in class and with our staff. George Speckman, Middle School Science Teacher says it best, “[The Bay Discovery Program] grounds the lessons that I am teaching in the classroom in the real world, giving the students the kind of direct experience that helps them care at a visceral level about what is happening in the natural world. It is an invaluable experience!” 

Bayer Fund has been supporting Save The Bay’s Community-Based Restoration program for over a decade bringing hands-on STEM education to thousands of students.  

We are proud to recognize Bayer Fund as a Bay Saver. Thank you for your dedication to providing STEM experiences to youth in the Bay Area, and throughout the country. 

Bayer Fund, a philanthropic arm of Bayer in the U.S., is a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening the communities where Bayer customers and employees live and work by providing funding for food nutrition, education, and health and wellness projects. For more information visit www.fund.bayer.us.