Monday, July 27, 2009

TreeKeepers work on the Bear Creek Trail at Garth

If you use the Bear Creek Trail, and travel through the Garth Avenue Trailhead, it is likely you saw some changes after Saturday morning! A dozen TreeKeeper volunteers, along with Chad and Dave with Columbia Parks & Rec., were up bright and early Saturday morning to trim the trees around the parking lot and also cut back tree growth along the trail.

Thanks to Herman, Bill, Richard, Becky, Clare, Dave, Blair, Angela, Vanessa, Amber, Mary Jo, Jacob and Amy for sharing their time!

Mary Jo and Richard work on trimming a tree near the parking lot entrance.

Amber and Angela decide on the next step trimming a tree along the Bear Creek Trail.

Clare and Bill work on trimming a tree back in the parking lot.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Volunteers go Around the World

Last night Columbia Parks & Recreation held the monthly Family Fun Fest at Flat Branch Park. This month's them was Around the World. Many thanks to the more than 15 volunteers who led games or helped with face painting. It was a beautiful night and a big turnout! The volunteers who helped had fun and created a great experience for kids and their families.

Stay tuned... there are three more Family Fun Fests this year: August 19, September 16 and October 21. Let us know if you can help - volunteer@GoColumbiaMo.com or 874-7499.

Youth In Action volunteers have fun with a ball-passing game.

Lindsay leads a group of kids in Achi, an African version of tic-tac-toe.

Kristin and Jon lead a Mexican bean throwing game.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Notes on volunteering - odds and ends!

The posts the last few weeks have been sparse, so I thought I would share a few items today!

I had the great pleasure of attending the National Conference on Volunteering & Service in San Francisco on June 21-24. The highlight was the opening session that featured First Lady Michelle Obama, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Maria Shriver and entertainers Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew McConaughey. Quite a cast! It is wonderful that the President and First Lady have such an interest in supporting service... and people are taking note! California is doing some progressive things related to volunteering, including a cabinet post dedicated to service.

I so appreciate the support these officials and celebrities give to service, but I don't want to lose sight of all the hundreds of people who have served on a regular basis for years! Sometimes these new campaigns make it sound like volunteering is a new thing when really it's been part of our community for years.

I also discovered how special Columbia is to have an office dedicated to volunteering within our local government. Of the 5,000 who attended the conference, fewer than 30 worked to manage volunteers within local government. Thanks to our city leaders for making this investment.

On the local front:

  • Many thanks to the 18 TreeKeepers and 12 disc golf club members who worked at Oakland Park on Saturday, June 27 remulching the course and pruning.
  • Last November, a large group of volunteers worked on a sidewalk assessment project in cooperation with GetAbout Columbia. This week I had a note from the project manager, Kristin Re. While she sent the note to me, the thanks goes to the volunteers who shared their time:
    I wanted to send a thank you for helping to garner volunteers to quantify sidewalk accessibility. Without your help and the community's, I would not have been able to collect the data. With the data I was able to present the current conditions to city council and they agreed to repair the measured 18 square blocks. This is a wonderful example of how the community can unite to make the environment usable for every citizen regardless of abilities.

Have a great day --

Leigh Britt