At local schools (Santa Cruz County), rangers and volunteers will facilitate the Encounters Program. During the Encounters activity, students in costume reenact the historic meeting between Father Kino and the O'odham Indians in 1691.

To link the present to the past, the Encounters activity is followed by an introduction to Mission 2000, an online database of mission records, translated from Spanish, dating from 1684 - 1848. Via Mission 2000, students discover more about this area's intriguing history. Many are excited to learn that the last names of people they know have deep roots and date back hundreds of years to people who lived here during the mission era. In-depth searches via Mission 2000 include intormation about epidemics, uprisings, baptisms, battles, and more.