About the Artist
Hailey Schott
Hailey Schott is 12 years old and lives in Thornwood, New York, with her mom and dad. She has been making art her whole life. From painting, drawing and stamping at her Melissa and Doug easel at two years old to creating polymer clay sculptures in sea shells she collects at the beach now, Hailey has always enjoyed creating art.
As a toddler, Hailey loved going to the Mt. Pleasant Community Center for “Art and Lit with Miss Robin.” At Hawthorne Elementary she would get extra excited for art class with Mrs. Chambers and would take any after school art class she could.
When COVID changed everything, Hailey decided to try out homeschooling for 4th grade, this allowed her time to focus on making art and learning Italian. Drawing, painting, and sculpting classes on Outschool became exciting additions to her busy schedule. With the continuation of COVID disruptions came another year of homeschooling and even more art and Italian for 5th grade. Now in 7th grade, Hailey is back in public school and has adjusted remarkably well. She is a member of the Junior National Honor Society, the Environmental Club and, of course, participates in the Art Club at her school.
Hailey’s favorite mediums are acrylics for painting and polymer clay for sculpting. She is drawn to wildlife and landscapes as her subjects, finding inspiration during her frequent walks at Rockefeller State Park Preserve.
In her spare time, Hailey is a dedicated volunteer at Rockefeller State Park Preserve where she is a Guardian and a Monarch Ambassador. She can be seen leading monthly Full Moon Hikes, Monarch Habitat Hikes during the summer, releasing monarch butterflies in the courtyard at RSPP, sharing information about saving the monarch butterflies, patrolling her favorite trails and learning amazing things at so many of the educational workshops, lectures and hikes offered at RSPP.
Hailey loves art but she also enjoys playing the piano, dancing - especially ballet, learning Italian, studying science, spending time with her family, going to the beach and watching ridiculous videos on YouTube. She loves listening to Pearl Jam, the Encanto soundtrack and Sofi Tukker, even if her dad doesn’t. When she grows up, Hailey would like to continue developing her love of art in some professional capacity.
About Hailey's Love for Rockefeller State Park Preserve
As a baby, Hailey visited Rockefeller State Park Preserve regularly with her parents. She would ride around in her stroller, taking in the animals, trees and flowers. She always loved visiting the cows, sheep, ducks, geese, turtles and especially the chicks and the chickens. She also loved sitting on a bench by the cows, quietly listening to the cows chewing grass, calling it “cow meditation”. The Peony Garden was a favorite spot for Hailey to “stop and smell the flowers” and take lots of photos with her Fisher Price camera.
As Hailey grew, so did her love for RSPP. Hailey became interested in monarch butterflies when her friend Ginger introduced her to saving the monarchs during the summer of 2017. That next summer, Hailey and her mom started volunteering at RSPP as Citizen Scientists, scheduling monarch releases that were very well attended in the courtyard. That program grew to what it is today with the support and encouragement of the wonderful RSPP staff. Most notably Jean Dolen, who would drop everything to come out of the office to say hello and watch the monarchs take flight for every butterfly release.
With the pandemic turning everything upside down in March of 2020, Hailey looked forward to daily hikes at RSPP after finishing her remote schooling for the day. She learned all the trails at RSPP, found favorite resting spots, favorite “picture spots”, favorite trees and favorite rocks! In July of 2020, Ranger Su put out the call for “Guardians of the Preserve”, regular visitors who knew the trails, could commit to weekly patrols and be faces on the trails for visitors to see and recognize. Hailey did not need to be asked twice if she was interested in this very important task. Hailey and her mom were accepted as the first guardian pair at RSPP, received their uniforms and got to work collecting trash on the trails, reminding visitors of the rules, helping visitors with directions, reporting hazards on the trails and enjoying nature. That was about the same time that Hailey was introduced to Josh DiPaola and the huge snapping turtle that he was rehabilitating. Hailey has learned so much from Josh, not just about turtles but birds, coyotes, frogs and patience too! In Spring of 2021, Hailey met Devyani Mishra who shared her enthusiasm for all things plants. Hailey would take and share notes from Devyani’s monthly Tree Identification Hikes, identify and report invasive species that Devyani was tracking or removing plus Devyani became Hailey’s partner for the Monarch Program. Around this same time, Hailey was getting some exposure to Earth Science at “Hailey’s Happy Place Academy.” If only RSPP had a rock expert to go along with the fauna and flora experts she had befriended. Enter - Kim Fendrich in Spring of 2021. Kim was hired as Environmental Educator at RSPP and very quickly began scheduling amazing educational programs…and she just so happened to be a geologist as well!
Hailey has attended just about every educational program offered at RSPP and each one has helped her become the Junior Naturalist that she is today. Whether it is Stargazing or Birds of Prey on Overlook Trail, or History of Rockwood Hall or Sunset Hikes at Rockwood, or Tree Identification Hikes or Amphibian Hikes around Swan Lake, trekking to the Glacial Erratic, CoExisting with Coyotes or Wolf Conservation in the Art Gallery, or donning waders and sloshing around in vernal pools aside the Pocantico, Hailey is learning at RSPP on every single visit. Much of the credit goes to Peter Iskenderian, Preserve Manager, for putting together such an amazingly talented staff.
Over the years of visiting and volunteering at RSPP, Hailey has met some wonderful people who have made significant impacts to her personally. In addition to those amazing people mentioned above, Hailey credits the following people with making her RSPP experiences so wonderful: Susan Antenen, Rebecca Policello, Julia Jardine, Dmitri Benzinger and Laurence Gill for being so encouraging at the beginning of the Monarch Conservation Programs. Fellow Guardians who have become dear friends - Rob Amendola, Leslie and Gordon Quimby, Anne Sumers and Shining Star, Loren and Ginny, Melissa Rinzler and John Petry. Special preserve visitors and volunteers who Hailey looks forward to seeing on every visit: Elaine Sackmann, Carl Steiniger, Chris Davies, Jo-Ann Campanella, Dave Black, David Teich, Mike Miernik, Matt VanFleet, Bill and Hillary, and Deb Strobel. This list keeps growing in such a wonderful way with each new event and adventure at RSPP.
In July of 2021, Hailey came up with the idea to host the Charity Art Auction after her Aunt Karen had suggested that she could sell her pieces of art created and shared on weekly family zoom calls. Hailey thought about that suggestion for a while when she decided it would be a great way to give back to RSPP.
In December 2021 during a celebratory luncheon, Hailey was honored with a treasured plaque and patches for her guardian vest recognizing her “Exceptional Service and Inspiring Dedication to Monarch Conservation at the Rockefeller State Park Preserve.” On that day, Hailey announced her intentions to host this Charity Art Auction to benefit Rockefeller State Park Preserve. She was so relieved to finally get the secret she had been keeping out in the open and to start planning.
Hailey has spoken of the importance of RSPP to her, calling it her “second home.” She wants to help others enjoy and learn from their visits to RSPP as well by raising money to be used for educational programs. She has some ideas for new signage that will help educate visitors about the wildlife that call RSPP home and informational signs for some of the important landmarks at RSPP. Hailey’s Art Auction to Benefit Rockefeller State Park Preserve is her way of giving back just a fraction of all that she has received.