Volunteer of the Month

I know I tell others "You should be willing to be interviewed, photographed, videoed. You shouldn't be shy...celebrate your successes..and share them."

It is way easier to say that to others..than do it myself.

I was hesitant to be interviewed as WI League of Conservation Voters Volunteer of the Month. I haven't been active as a volunteer lately. But in the spirit of celebrating what I have done...instead of focusing on what I haven't...here is my interview..

WLCV Member of the Month

photo: flickr silusgrok

Arb Volunteering Month 3

I was informed by the kids that pulling weeds is not as satisfying as lopping trees. Seth says..."The Trowelinators is just not the same as the Lopinators"

We pulled Dames' Rocket ( which I recognized that we had in our lawn) and garlic mustard. It was humbling to see how fast these invasive plants take over.

The photo is of the kids showing how many bags of Dame's Rocket they pulled. I believe the pose I asked for "Stand behind the bags and raise your trowels."

From Salmanders to Snow

Here we are on Wednesday looking for a salamander pond. We help with the Wisconsin' annual salamander survey(as Audubon volunteers). Each year we place traps in a pond and check them for 5 days. The boys are making sure this pond is deep enough to put traps in. Obviously you have to go WAY in just to make sure.

A mere three days later, we celebrated the first day of spring with our 3rd arboretum volunteer day. You have to love WI weather in March. Before we arrived there was only one volunteer...after we arrived..there weren't any more tools.


Did I mention that our group name is "The Lopinators"?

We have a reputation!

Our first arboretum work day, we had two families and we doubled the numbers of the work party. Yesterday, we had four families represented and we tripled the number of the work party. And the volunteer leader told us.."The Chippers were talking about you." (the chippers are the ones who come after us and put all the brush we cut into the chipper.) The chippers were talking about us because...we have the best piles. :)

Volunteers R Us Part 2

Volunteering meets No Child Left Inside




We joined another family with two boys in volunteering for an Arboretum work day. It involved tools, lots of movement, and we could see the results of our work right away. Afterwords, we celebrated by going out for lunch at Pasquals ( you are probably seeing a theme) We have made a commitment ( along with this other family who conveniently has two boys) to volunteer once a month.

Arboretum work days are held each Saturday from 9-noon. No training needed, you don't have to RSVP, they supply the tools, training and cookies!

Volunteers R Us

One of the goals for this year is to volunteer with our kids. Here we are volunteering in a Lincoln Elementary Classroom (we brought along a few extra boys because it is more fun that way.) We volunteered in Ms Weaver's third grade helping the kids to learn about rocks. Ms Weaver said, when her students wrote about "best part of the week" most of them described when the middle schoolers visited with their rocks!