Maruca brings enrichment to Idyllwild through nonprofit

Anna Maruca is the founder of Creative Connections, a local nonprofit providing enrichment classes and activities for youth and seniors. The group is now offering almost a dozen programs that range from science to language, arts, crafts and play. All programs are free or low cost, and scholarships are available.

Maruca’s own experience with home schooling led her to make a substantial contribution to Idyllwild’s educational landscape. When she started the nonprofit in September, her goal was to serve the home schooling population, but she quickly found there also was a need to serve the local elementary school children, and the community in general.

Maruca reports that the group has grown in less that six months to include over 40 families. A December field trip took 71 children and guardians to the San Diego Zoo. Upcoming trips include a Shark Discovery Lab at the Birch Aquarium March 24 (free for children, adults pay $24.95) and a field trip to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve March 31. An outing to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park is planned for June 2. As with the zoo trip, children will get in free and adults will pay $15.

Maruca grew up in the Coachella Valley, then spent 10 years in San Diego, where her husband still works. She worked for 20 years in construction, real estate project management experience that prepared her for her current activities. “Everything I learned in business really helped … I did my own website in a day, I went after grants, I did my own filing for nonprofit status. Now, I’m getting a degree in educational leadership and community developed at UCR.” She has also worked in YMCA after school programs for the Riverside County school district.

She moved to Idyllwild in August 2021 to be closer to nature. She was home schooling her 8-year-old. “When the pandemic hit, I had time on my hands.” She found few offerings for children here and “little by little started having ideas.” A Lego Club was among those first ideas, launched in May of last year.

Maruca attributes the speed with which this modest beginning grew into a formidable collection of programs to the help of other, more established groups on the Hill:

“I think what I am proud of most is the connections I have been able to make with other nonprofits and community leaders. The Art Alliance of Idyllwild has been instrumental in helping us launch our programs as they were the funding source of our initial class, our Thursday Community Art Workshop and have since provided grants to fund our Lego Clubs and upcoming monthly art history workshops. Their financial support and unconditional trust enabled us to not only fund the programs intended, but inspired us to create more.

“Brian Reeves, at Camp Maranatha, has also been incredible, as he has allowed us to use the camp classrooms and facilities to also host workshops. We have an entire resource room at Camp Maranatha filled with curriculum, materials, art supplies and more, that makes it very easy to stay organized, plan and prepare.

“My latest partnership is with the Friends of San Jacinto Mountain County Parks (FSJMCP). I initially came on to help promote and sponsor the Saturday Science Club, but have since joined their board, and we are now also hosting our Spanish Nature class weekly at the Nature Center, as well. We are currently developing more classes for our Saturday Science Program and working with the Idyllwild Area Historical Society to develop a Jr. Historian Program.”

Maruca’s next efforts will include more offerings that bring youth and elders together. “I reached out to the Riverside County Foundation on Aging, spoke with their president about how we can bring more programs to the community. We do lack a senior center. I also connected with First 5 Riverside County and pitched to them programs involving kids and seniors. They are reviewing my grant proposal.”

Here is a roundup of Creative Connections’ current and upcoming offerings:

• Sewing Club: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesdays, Camp Maranatha San Jacinto Room.

• Monthly Modern Art Workshops: Second Tuesday of each month at various locations. It is sponsored by Art Alliance of Idyllwild.

• Spanish in the Wild/Niños and Nature: 10 a.m.-noon Wednesdays, Idyllwild Nature Center.

• Minecraft and Scratch Coding Class: 2-3 p.m. Wednesdays, Camp Maranatha San Jacinto Chapel (CMSJC).

• Lego Club: 3-4 p.m. Wednesdays, CMSJC

• Lego Play for Seniors and Children: 10 a.m.-noon Thursdays, Idyllwild Nature Center.

• Community Art: 2-4 p.m. Thursdays, locations vary.

• Friends of the San Jacinto Mountain County Parks Science Club: 1-2:30 p.m. Saturdays, Nature Center.

• STEAM Monthly Museum Meetups: First Wednesday of the month, locations vary.

• Community gARTen. Cooking, nutrition, entrepreneurship and more. Orientation 11 a.m. Monday March 27. “We have a bed at the community garden, we’re going to grow our own crops, cooking classes, well learn about sustainability, harvesting rain, native and invasive plant species. Produce not used in cooking classes will go to the farmers market along with crafts from classes,” she said.

• Science Freshwater Ecology Research Labs: Spring Orientation March 27. “We teamed up with Roger Lasken, president of the FSJMCP, a biologist and environmental science teacher with a pHd. He taught in LA County schools over 40 years. We’re going to set up stations at different freshwater creeks and still water throughout the community,” she said. “We’ll study water quality, organisms, fungi. We’re going to team up with Monarchs and More Western Habitat Program, a joint venture that tracks monarch habitats across California. We’d like to create a habitat. We need a 1/4 acre to set it up.”

Maruca concludes “My thing is, education should be accessible to everyone. I am not just interested in educating my children, these are the children my children will interact with, and be adults with in the world. My obligation is not just to my children but to the children in the community.”

For more information about any of these programs call (619) 731-2127 or visit the website: www.creativeconnectionscommunity.org.