Despite a Pandemic, a group of four creative Wenatchee Naturalist volunteers from the 2019 class have earned their 50+ and 100+ volunteer hour service pins. Each has already earned their 20+ hour volunteer service pin- read about their stories here.
Join me in celebrating the wide variety of ways they have supported conservation in North Central Washington. Their service helps to foster awareness, understanding, and stewardship of the Wenatchee River region in our community.
50+ Volunteer Hours Pin recipient, Caroline Woolmington, volunteers for Chelan-Douglas Land Trust, working in partnership with the children’s librarians at the Wenatchee Library on the StoryWalk project. Under Caroline’s leadership, a new book is selected and posted four times each year along the first 1/8-mile along the trail at the Jacobson Preserve on Skyline Drive. PIcture books are chosen to foster a greater appreciation for nature and literacy, especially for young children, 3-10 years old, and many are bilingual (Spanish/English). Carolyn uses her professional expertise in literacy to find titles, and then is able to test books by reading them aloud to her two young children.
50+ and 100+ Volunteer Hours Pin recipient, Clare Morrison, volunteers with Team Naturaleza, serving on the steering committee. Last winter, she lead a Team Naturaleza bilingual snow walk at the Peshastin Mill Site . She teamed up with staff at Chelan-Douglas Land Trust to select children’s picture books for a large display window, featuring themes around enjoying nature and being outside.
Clare provided guidance using her expertise as a librarian to Wenatchee River Institute, as their staff planned and launched a StoryWalk . Beyond volunteering and as part of her job in spring 2022, Clare designed bird-themed hands-on activities for her Peshastin Library patrons, in partnership with Leavenworth Spring Bird Fest, centered at Wenatchee River Institute.
50+ and 100+ Volunteer Hours Pin recipient, Katja Rowell (class of 2018), enlisted her husband and daughter to join her as community science volunteers for North Central Washington Audubon Society (NCWAS). They complete monthly winter raptor driving surveys, November-March, a project led by the East Cascades Audubon Society.
Katja’s family joined a team for the annual Christmas Bird Count, and they assist locally with the National Audubon Climate Watch program. Starting in spring 2022, they are part of the new NCWAS Kestrel Nest Box Monitoring program, centered in Douglas County.
50+ and 100+ Volunteer Hours Pin recipient, Elisa Lopez, is a volunteer with the Brave Space Project – a multi-racial, women-led radically collaborative creative team seeking to decolonize outdoor culture both in front of and behind the lens. Elisa is one of twelve women featured in the new documentary, Expedition Reclamation. Subtitled, “It’s here in nature we belong” the filmmakers summarize their work as a documentary seeking to redefine “outdoorsy” and reclaim belonging in the outdoors for Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color by highlighting their joyful, resilient, and transformative relationships to outdoor recreation. Elisa’s involvement began during film-making and continues as it the film is featured in festivals and in regional showings. Elisa also serves on the board of Sustainable Wenatchee, as treasurer in 2022.
The volunteer service of these four women exemplify the mission of the Wenatchee Naturalist program to cultivate awareness, understanding, and stewardship of the Wenatchee River region by developing an active corps of well-informed community volunteers. Since 2012, Over 225 people have completed the course and have launched their own pathways in support of conservation.
Registration opens August 10th with Wenatchee Valley College Continuing Education for the fall in-person course with 24 class members. Classes run for twelve weeks – Sept. 21-Dec. 14 with four Saturday field trips on Oct. 8 & 22, Nov. 5, and Dec.3. The course is designed to allow participants to meet new friends, discover lovely local places to visit again, and to gain new eyes for the natural wonders of North Central Washington. To date, over 225 people, ages 12-81, have completed the course and become Wenatchee Naturalists. Learn more here, or contact program lead, Susan Ballinger (skylinebal@gmail.com).