Sedona, AZ — Keep Sedona Beautiful will hold its next Preserving the Wonder™ Speaker Series event on Wednesday, September 16 at 5:00 pm at KSB’s EcoHub, 360 Brewer Road, Sedona. This month’s speaker is Diane Kristoff, aka Dino Diane, Education Director at Keep Sedona Beautiful. She will speak on “Discover the Wonder – An Adventure Approach to Learning About Nature!” The event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4:30 pm. Please visit the KSB website, www.keepsedonabeautiful.org, for details.
Diane will take participants on an adventure to learn first-hand about Sedona’s native plants and their uses by indigenous peoples and wildlife, identify local pollinators, examine the region’s unique geology, and learn principles of responsible land stewardship. Our adventure begins inside the KSB meeting room. You’ll experience a shortened version of the KSB’s Discover the Wonder field trips now offered at no cost to area middle and high school students to learn about Sedona’s geologic history and the Leave No Trace 7 Principles in a fun and interactive way. Then the group will conclude outdoors with a self-guided exploration of the KSB educational garden using a Field Journal developed by Kristoff and guided by KSB Adventure Guides. The program kicked off in 2026 with a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation of Yavapai County, and will expand in the 2026-2027 school year in part supported by a new grant from the City of Sedona. This program is now providing hundreds of students the opportunity to learn about nature interactively in a meaningful, memorable, and enjoyable way.
Adventurer, author and award-winning educator Diane Kristoff earned her degree in geology with an emphasis in paleontology from Arizona State University, where she also received her teaching certification and gifted endorsement. She began her career teaching eighth-grade science in Tempe, Arizona. There, she founded an environmental awareness club and guided as many as 50 eighth graders backpacking into the deserts and canyons of Arizona and Utah. She has inspired hundreds of teens to learn how to survive in the wilds, become courageous adventurers, and appreciate and respect nature. Regarded as a master educator, Kristoff was awarded the prestigious Silver Apple Award by Channel 3 and the Dial Corporation and received the Arizona Science Teacher of the Year Award by the Salt River Project.
For over 50 years, Keep Sedona Beautiful has been dedicated to protecting and enhancing the scenic beauty and natural environment of Sedona and the Verde Valley. And now, we’ve added environmental education for young people – a new beginning! For more information about Keep Sedona Beautiful, please visit www.keepsedonabeautiful.org.
