I am continually grateful for the enormous support from Evergreen Audubon’s board, members, and volunteers. I am so honored to be able to work with such dedicated and enthusiastic people and truly appreciate each of you beyond words. The banquet is dedicated to all of you and I do not exaggerate when I say that this organization exists because of you. We are able to do this important work in our community thanks to your support and generosity. Thank you for giving your time, resources, and kindness to support Evergreen Audubon.
Before I get to the awards, I want to provide a brief recap from the banquet presentation summarizing the impact that Evergreen Audubon had this past year (there are a lot of numbers, so bear with me) –
The Evergreen Nature Center (ENC) was visited by 2,508 children and 5,919 adults between May and October. While our visitation at the ENC was down this year, our public programming impact was up by >1,700 attendees over last year. We doubled the number of public events hosted throughout the calendar year and increased total public program attendance by 184%. Attendance at our school and community programs increased by 71% in addition to broadening our outreach to Clear Creek County.
Below are the programming totals for 2022.
# of Public Programs offered: 61
# of Adult attendees: 1,748
# of Child attendees: 880
Total # of attendees: 2,628
(2021 total: 923)
# of School & Community Programs offered: 49
# of Adult attendees: 129
# of Child attendees: 648
Total # of attendees: 777
(2021 total: 454)
TOTAL number of people reached through programs: 3,405
These program totals, conservation efforts, and the success of Evergreen Audubon as a whole is supported by an incredible number of volunteers. In 2022, 132 of our volunteers donated over 4,200 hours of their time, or an estimated $125,000 of time! I am staggered by that number and hope to convey just a bit of my gratitude with the following volunteer awards:
Education Extraordinaire Award presented to Chuck Aid!
Evergreen Audubon awards Chuck Aid for the incredible amount of work he does to support our education efforts! Not only does Chuck lead our monthly birding walks (often more than once a month!), he has assisted with numerous school, community, and public programs throughout the year. Thank you, Chuck, for sharing your wealth of knowledge and fostering enthusiasm with program participants!
Dynamic Duo Award presented to Libby Henits & Lynn Montgomery!
Evergreen Audubon awards Libby Henits & Lynn Montgomery for volunteering almost every week throughout the summer at the Evergreen Nature Center! Lynn and Libby consistently supported Maddy at the Nature Center and were always ready to greet visitors with smiles and contagious enthusiasm. Thank you for your consistent and enthusiastic support of the ENC!
Terrific Travelers Award presented to John & Sally Mattson!
Evergreen Audubon Awards John & Sally Mattson for their commitment to supporting our Wildlife Watch Program! John & Sally traveled over 2-hours round trip to volunteer with us numerous times throughout both our spring and fall seasons of Wildlife Watch! Thank you for helping facilitate wildlife awareness in Evergreen!