KENNEBUNKPORT — Hope Poore stomped her boot into the mud Saturday afternoon. “I found an animal track!” she exclaimed.

The Kennebunkport fourth-grader couldn’t keep from laughing, though, and her trick didn’t fool anyone. So the group continued down the trail, in search of a genuine paw print and the other items on the scavenger hunt list ”“ like a bird’s nest, a bug and a feather.

The guided nature walk and scavenger hunt was part of the Kennebunkport Conservation Trust’s celebration of Earth Day, which is Wednesday, April 22. The event, a first for the KCT, was organized by three Middle School of the Kennebunks students ”“ eighth-graders Eli Richardson, Charlie Metcalfe and Ian Zogg ”“ as well as University of New England student Willow Gertz.

Gertz, a senior studying marine science at UNE, is interning at the KCT this spring, while the middle school students are volunteering there as part of their school’s International Baccalaureate, or IB, program.

“I think that our school has done a really good job in getting us to become that global citizen that everybody should be,” Richardson said of the program.

There was Earth-themed fun to be had indoors Saturday, too, as children fashioned nylon-wrapped “dirt babies” and crafted colorful paper pinwheels. On a poster-size sheet of paper, people scribbled answers to the question, “How will you help the Earth?” and questionnaires revealed their carbon footprint. Gertz said hers was higher than she’d hoped.

Nathan Poore, of Kennebunkport, was there with his wife, their daughter Hope and their son Marston, a fifth-grader. “We live right down the road, and the kids really enjoy the place and the trails and the programs,” he said of the KCT. “It’s a great community asset.”

“I’ve always thought the trust is a really nice place,” said Hope. “It’s really neat.”

Leia Lowery, the KCT’s director of education, said this is the first year the trust is working with area middle school students, and that it’s been a wonderful experience so far.

“I’m hoping we’ll be able to continue working with the middle school,” she said.

At about 1:30 in the afternoon, Lowery scanned the room and noted all of the children there had been part of the KCT’s Trust in Our Children program, which aims to “give kids a sense of place and connect them to the land.” Two of the middle school volunteers had been part of the program too, said Lowery.

“They’re very connected to the trust, and I love that it’s lasting,” she said.

— Staff Writer Angelo J. Verzoni can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 329 or averzoni@journaltribune.com.