- VMN New Volunteer of the Year
- VMN Chapter Advisor of the Year
- VMN Chapter Leader of the Year
- VMN Most Impactful Projects of the Year (2)
- VMN Volunteer of the Year
- VMN Diversity and Inclusion Award
We invite you to watch the video (about 16 minutes) to learn all about these outstanding volunteers, chapters, and projects!
You also can watch the video at video.vt.edu.
Clyde Wilson retrieving a turtle trap. Photo by Terri Mewborn.
Clyde Wilson joined the program in 2022 as a member of the inaugural class of our new Southern Piedmont Chapter. He’s already contributed nearly 800 hours of service! From the beginning, Clyde jumped into multiple service projects, took on leadership roles, and was always the first to volunteer for dirty jobs. His work on the Virginia Bird and Wildlife Trail Adopt-a-Trail project has helped get the trail information updated to ensure a positive and safe visitor experience and to re-engage the local site owners in caring for their sites.
Karen Duhring at Dragon Run. Photo by Tom Crockett.
Karen Duhring, is a marine scientist with the Center for Coastal Resources Management at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and is the advisor for our Middle Peninsula Chapter. Karen’s chapter members describe her as a superb advisor, astute questioner, solution provider, selfless giver, and inspiring motivator. In the nominators’ words: “We believe our chapter is so successful in engaging members and reaching out to the community because we have someone supporting our efforts who embodies her own advice: Be present. Be patient. Be real. Be engaged.”
Bill Boeh (left) at the Mariners’ Museum. Photo by Daina Henry.
Bill Boeh has served on the board of the Peninsula Chapter since 2017, first as treasurer and more recently as secretary. In the last two years, Bill led initiatives to update both the chapter bylaws and the operating handbook. He gathered input from other chapter leaders and oversaw the process of revising the documents, reviewing them, getting them approved at all levels. His nominators write, “Very few people have made the impact Bill has in support of efficient and effective Chapter operations. He has made this impact through very detailed and meticulous work in the areas of requirements, operation and financial accounting.
Historic Southside’s stormwater retention project. Photo by Henry McBurney.
The Historic Southside Chapter’s Stormwater Retention Project at Windsor Castle Park was chosen for this award because of its positive impacts for both water quality and natural resource education, as well as its unique partnerships. The primary goal of the project was to provide a demonstration to inform the public of the benefits of retaining stormwater from impervious surfaces. But, what really made the project happen was a unique collaboration with the Isle of Wight NAACP, which maintains a community vegetable garden at the site. Having a purposeful use for the retained water was the key to selling the project to the Smithfield Town Council. Numerous chapter members, along with NAACP volunteers, helped with the installation. The chapter will soon finish interpretive signage, brochures, and website updates as educational resources to pair with the demonstration.
Historic Rivers Chapter Outreach. Photo by Barbara Creel.
The Historic Rivers Chapter’s community outreach-education project aimed to focus on two key areas: first, enriching, enhancing, and extending community outreach-education to have a greater natural influence on individuals and families, and second, encouraging individuals and families to pursue further interest in the natural environment upon returning home. Technology was one strategy designed to attract event visitors of all ages to their outreach booth. Curious visitors scanned QR codes for iNaturalist, GLOBE Observer, Clean Virginia Waterways, and several other naturalist project sites and online tools. The chapter’s enriched outreach extended to small and medium sized events, evidenced by increased requests for presentations and workshops from local partnering county and city institutions, civic organizations, and residential homeowners’ clubs. Their outreach work helped springboard more in-depth programming that engaged people of all ages in actively learning about nature through activities like bluebird box building, bat echolocation detection, and beginner binocular lessons.
We recognize all the Volunteer of the Year nominees, because we think being nominated by one of your fellow volunteers is really special!
- Tim Anderson, Central Rappahannock Chapter
- Douglas Britt, Fairfax Chapter
- Rebecca Harriett, Shenandoah Chapter
- Carol Kauffmann, Middle Peninsula Chapter
- Janine Lawton, Merrimac Farm Chapter
- Kaycee Lichliter, Shenandoah Chapter
- Meera Rao, Peninsula Chapter
- Roz Stein, Pocahontas Chapter
Rebecca Harriett at the Christmas Bird Count. Photo by Mary Beth Yarbrough.
Rebecca Harriett of the Shenandoah Chapter. Rebecca has completed nearly 800 hours of service, despite only being in the program a few years, and during the pandemic, too. Not long after her own training in the 2019 training class of the Shenandoah Chapter, Rebecca volunteered to be the new Education Committee Chair, and she successfully held a fall 2021 training course alongside the outgoing chair, despite challenges from the pandemic. She then set to work planning a 2022 Spring class, and simultaneously agreed to step up to the Vice-President position for 2022. To say Rebecca was one of the busiest members of the chapter is an understatement. But, Rebecca’s volunteer service is quite wide-ranging and goes well beyond her chapter leadership role. She engages with the public twice a month as a volunteer staffer at a Shenandoah National Park visitor center, helps with outreach events and trail maintenance at Sky Meadows State Park, and monitors bluebird boxes at multiple sites. And, she continues to expand her naturalist knowledge through a diversity of continuing education.
Rivanna Master Naturalists and Boys and Girls Club youth celebrating art from nature together. Photo by Marilyn Smith.
The Rivanna Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group has worked enthusiastically to develop new connections and relationships within the Charlottesville and adjacent communities, and to initiate several successful programs with new partners. Recognizing that partnerships need to be based on authentic relationships and that any work RMN does in conjunction with community groups must be grounded in the needs and desires of that group, the Rivanna Chapter’s Diversity and Inclusion Working Group members have developed a network of relationships with diverse groups throughout the area, such as Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Boys and Girls Clubs, Adaptive Parks and Rec, UVa Black Faculty and Staff, and others. From these efforts, several programs have been initiated, with more envisioned. The working group offered nature walks on a variety of topics for the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge, and this fall, they completed a six-week Nature/Voices from the Land program for kindergarten through second grade members of the Journey Boys and Girls Club. They also participated alongside other community organizations in training Green Ambassadors, teenagers from a historically redlined community, to promote tree canopy expansion. The working group led internal initiatives, too, to identify and help carry forward diversity and inclusion action items for all of the chapter’s committees.