Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods and The Nature Principle, said in an interview in the March/April 2007 Orion Magazine:

Studies show that almost to a person conservationists or environmentalists—whatever we want to call them—had some transcendent experience in nature when they were children. For some, the epiphanies took place in a national park; for others, in the clump of trees at the end of the cul-de-sac. But if experiences in nature are radically reduced for future generations, where will stewards of the Earth come from?

We hope that Unitarian Universalist families and communities of faith will be places from which future stewards of the earth will come and that World of Wonder will be a program that inspires and nurtures children on that journey.

Loree Griffin Burns, a Unitarian Universalist and the author of Citizen Scientist, says:

I've been a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Worcester (Massachusetts) for nearly fifteen years and can tell you that the people I've met and experiences I've had there have had a strong influence on my writing. My work in our religious education program truly opened me up to the idea that one way we can share difficult stories with children—particularly stories of environmental degradation—is by giving them something meaningful to do about the issues. Things they can do with their own hands in their own communities.

Children need to know they can make a difference. This program seeks to nurture their growing sense of agency to affect their world in a positive way.