20th Anniversary Jamboree

Our annual event gets better each year. The

entertainment was excellent and enjoyed by all in

attendance. Many people took advantage of the

river and paddled to their hearts content. The food

was excellent and plentiful. A special thanks goes

out to all who helped make this happen. It is a

delight to see so many pitching in with their time

and talents to make this event a success. I

especially want to thank Robert and Linda

Wheeler for opening their farm up and giving us

full access to all the beauty and wonder on the

banks of the Huron River. Opossum was

awesome again with his talent and generosity that brought me to the brink of tears. New performers this

year were The Pilgrims and the Front Porch Swatters. I hope we will be seeing much more of them at

FOWL events.

As an annual meeting we had an extensive agenda beyond the fun, food and entertainment. We stated

our accomplishments for the previous year.

Among those were the Junk Raft competition,

Vernal Pool Workshop, Marsh Monitoring

initiation, several Sign-on Letters, Clean Water

Act rules review, Support for the International

Migratory Bird Act, Earth Day participation, and

strengthening our networking with a variety of

environmental groups that have overlapping

interests.

Art supplies were provided and those inclined

were invited to represent a wetland image. One

product of that effort is the pickerel weed on the

right created by Pat Krebs.

Thank you so much Pat!

We made a shout-out for volunteers. Here are

some ways volunteers can be of service; attend

Figure 1 The Pilgrims on stage at the Jamboree

Figure 2 Lotus by Pat Krebs

NEON hikes, represent FOWL at the Lake Erie Allegheny Partnership for Biodiversity, newsletter

contributors, reviewers, photographers, investigative journalists, art work and graphic design, web site

development, database management, tabling, workshops, events, junk raft, coastal cleanup with Old

Woman Creek, mailing, citizen science, and additional board members.

It is often stated that our organization has a greater need for active members than money. We actually

need both. With more money we would

upgrade our display and presentation

materials, pay for office supplies, and provide

professional memberships, training and travel

expenses. To stay connected go to

FOWL.org and join our email list. We have

specialized lists for a variety of interests;

News, Citizen Science, Education, Policy

Activists, and Governance. You can also

'LIKE' us on Facebook.

As advertised, this annual event is also a

fund-raiser. Many people take advantage of

this time to renew their membership and make

donations. We also run a 50/50 raffle and an

auction to raise money. Additional thanks go

out to those who donated items for the

auction. Wild, Native Harvest Rice and T-

Shirts were also sold. All told, the fund-raising

effort was a great success. The bottom line is

that we have roughly enough money from the

Jamboree to publish the next two newsletters.

If you have not renewed your membership lately, please take a moment and do so now.

Figure 3 Pickerel Weed by Pat Krebs