I'm Barbara Parks, and I teach kids the importance of snakes and help them overcome their fears.

My husband, Tracy Klotz, is a biology teacher at Arkansas State University. We bonded over our love of reptiles, and when we got together, we combined our pets into a rather large collection of reptiles. He was asked to bring his animals to one of his classes, and the experience was a big success. Soon, we were visiting camps and classrooms with our creatures.

I love helping kids overcome their fear of snakes and learn to appreciate them. Being in a rural area, snakes are abundant and valuable to the ecosystem. They are also often killed because of unnecessary fears. These creatures deserve respect, and once people understand how to react to them in the wild or in their backyard, they begin naturally preserving their ecosystem.

I have loved snakes since I got my first one when I was about nine. I have always loved reptiles and creepy crawlies, the unloved, because they need love, too.