We unexpectedly lost Bonnie to cancer in August 2025. Bonnie worked as a naturalist, educator, and mentor teacher for over 30 years. At Hidden Villa, she ran the children's garden, trained volunteers and led nature and garden explorations for youth ages 3 - 13 prior to starting her own nature based school Wildflower Play-School (previously Bonnie's House Play-School) for children ages 3 - 6. Bonnie also lead school age nature summer camps and backpacking trips.  She had a Site Supervisor level teaching permit designed for teachers working with children ages 0 - 6. Bonnie had a BA in Environmental Studies and another in Economics as well as a certificate in ecological horticulture (organic farming) all from UC Santa Cruz. Bonnie loved to learn and trained in creating outdoor classrooms, sharing clay with children, Orff and Waldorf teaching philosophies, early childhood mental health, inclusion, puppetry, second language learning, storytelling, mindfulness, composting and so many other relevant topics.  She had her adult and child yoga teacher certification and taught both adults and children at Jiaren Yoga Studio in Santa Clara. She was CPR and first aid certified and had twice completed wilderness first aid training. Bonnie worked locally training other early childhood educators to make their programs more joyful, playful and educational. She was a mentor teacher working with local Community College students since 2003. Bonnie enjoyed yoga, hiking, storytelling, crafting, meditation and cooking. She is survived by her mother, 2 adult children, sisters, and her life partner. 

Elizabeth discovered her passion for outdoor education of young children around the year 2000. She volunteered as a docent with Environmental Volunteers and then switched to volunteering as a farm and garden guide for young children at Hidden Villa. As her son approached preschool age, she quickly realized there weren't many preschools using natural materials and providing the whole-child experience she felt was ideal for young children. Once she found Bonnie's Wildflower Play-School for her son, she realized that she wanted to start a similar program 100% outdoors so that more children could have this amazing opportunity. With Bonnie's mentorship, Elizabeth opened Birdsong Outdoor School in 2019, and developed a thriving program. Elizabeth has a Child Development Site Supervisor level teaching permit (a preschool teaching credential), and over 24 units of early childhood education from West Valley and Foothill Colleges. Elizabeth is certified as a Forest School Teacher by the Forest School Teacher Institute. Elizabeth maintains current Red Cross CPR/First Aid certification and Wilderness First Aid certification. She has taken courses with Mindful Schools, Lifeways (Waldorf), Positive Parenting, and Hand in Hand Parenting (Parenting by Connection), and spent over 200 hours volunteering in elementary school classrooms and school gardens. Prior to Birdsong, Elizabeth was a licensed Civil and Environmental Engineer working on water related projects all over Northern California for over 20 years. She has a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering with high honors from UC Davis, and a master's degree in Environmental Engineering from UC Berkeley. Elizabeth enjoys wilderness backpacking with her husband and school-aged son, hiking, yoga, reading, lifelong learning, bicycling, alpine tundra, and live music.