People agree to join the board of directors of Friends for reasons such as their love of the outdoors, their appreciation of the importance of the Refuges to the way of life in our area, the importance of Refuges in preserving and conserving wild life and wild places for current and future generations, and because it is a cool group of folks who enjoy working together.
Even though Friends is a small nonprofit organization compared to big guys such as The American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, or the YMCA, our board members have a lot of rather heady responsibilities, Since Friends elected several new board members at the Annual Meeting, and to assure all the board remember the roles and goals, a Board Orientation happened in April.
The discussion included these topics. If you want to hear more about any of them, leave us a comment.
Founding and history:
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Friends' member Del Bottcher related the following account and beautiful photos of his recent trip on the Lower Suwannee Refuge. “Upper Dan May Creek is a fun but tricky navigation through the marsh channels from the McCormick Creek launch. Better have GPS, bug spray, and check the tides. Passed a manatee on way. Can’t think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning." - Del Bottcher Check out more about McCormick Creek here. 
On the morning of May 4, about 75 4th graders will arrive at Shell Mound by school bus for a Junior Ranger adventure. With the help of Refuge staff, teachers, and Friends' volunteers, they will complete their workbooks, be sworn in, and receive their Junior Ranger badges. Help! Friends needs volunteers who will be stationed at key places along the Dennis Creek Trail where they will receive groups of kids as they move from station to station and work through the pages relevant to each spot. It will be an all-morning-long commitment. It is our first group Junior Ranger exercise. We want to assure that each child succeeds. Please, can you help??
Email [email protected] to volunteer and be part of this adventure. Update: A Friends member from Ohio just gifted the 200 workbooks. Thank you John Douglass! At the top of Friends' Wish List this month is $600 to purchase 200 additional copies of the Junior Ranger workbook. Two school groups and a summer kids' program have asked about completing the program. That would be about 150 books we would want to provide. When we have classes who want to become Junior Rangers, we would like to be able to give the workbooks to them. Several individual kids from around the country have completed the workbooks after downloading them from our website. One family in Texas has three kids who work as a team to complete workbooks from various refuges. Two of the kids are disabled and they do the pages together so all can help each other and get badges. Some of their pages, which they photographed and sent to us, are below. We will mail their badges and ask for a photo to show later. To help, email [email protected] or visit or Wish List page.
In an effort to reach more people in different locations, Friends volunteers have been moving around in March and April.
RIver Trail: Pete Tirrell, Heather Evans, and Bill Dummit reported that 20 visitors came and they chatted with 14. One visitor was head of the Department of Conservation for the state of Pennsylvania. She was impressed with the refuge. She and her brother now own the last two blue Cedar Key NWR hats. Never fear, they're reordered! Shell Mound: Debbie Meeks and Jeri Treat talked with the 33 people who visited. Cedar Key Chamber Welcome Center: Peg Hall, Linda Kimball, and Jeri Treat have been spending several Saturdays and Sundays engaging the many visitors. Seahorse Key Open Houses: Two open houses were held in March. First one had 98 visitors, and second one 97! Thanks to Friends' members Jeri Treat, Heather Evans, Pete Tirrell, Debbie Meeks, Chuck Adams, and Ron Kamzelski for volunteering. We need more volunteers to help with these worthwhile and enjoyable activities. Interested? Send an email to [email protected].  However, if you did miss Barbara Woodmansee's talk on March 30th at the Cedar Key Library, not to worry. The entire talk is available on this YouTube video link. Enjoy!
Friends members and Refuge Resident Volunteers Robin and Rick Gallup are completing their stay for this season. One example of the work they do around the Refuge is these sturdy front and back steps at Vista's main house. Many of you will remember the old stairs and appreciate this safety upgrade.
Friends Spring Butterfly Walk, led by Barbara Woodmansee, was well attended by both butterflies and visitors. The walk followed the picturesque Barnett Creek road in the Lower Suwannee Refuge, as shown in the photos above by Friends board member Jeri Treat. Below are some photos taken by Friends board member Pete Tirrell.
 Friends booth at the Old Florida Celebration of the Arts is an opportunity to introduce many visitors to our Refuges and share information about their history, purposes, and value to the community, and places of interest. When visitors also buy our merchandise, the revenues support all of our outreach programs. We want to give a big thank you for all the people who made this Arts Festival a success, both for meeting people and for our revenue stream. It was a lovely couple of days at the festival!  Starting in April, on the third Wednesday of each month, tours will be available at Vista by reservation. One of Friends' board members will meet folks there and walk them through the property. The tours will be not more than an hour long. If you would like to join the tour on Wednesday, April 19, email [email protected] by Sunday April 16.  The trail into Vista. Vista is closed except during these newly scheduled tours on the 3rd Wednesday of the month. Reservations are required. The two March Open Houses at Seahorse Key are now in the books. Ninety-six visitors arrived for the first on March 15 and 98 for the second on March 29. Thanks to the hard-working volunteers who helped make it a good experience for everyone.
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Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges
P. O. Box 532 Cedar Key, FL 32625 [email protected] We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. |
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