I grew up on the south side of Chicago. What we considered the outdoors was swimming in the canal. When I was 18, I joined the Marine Corps — then I got to go camping! During that time, I was fortunate to be put into a new occupation called data processing, which then led me to a career working for software companies.
At 63, I got the opportunity to retire and had to decide what I wanted to do with my time. I’ve always loved the outdoors, so I asked myself how I could help the environment for future generations. I started volunteering for the National Park Service and then joined an organization called Volunteers for Outdoor Arizona, building trails around Arizona. Another volunteer recommended I get involved with the Grand Canyon Trust, and when I looked online, I found exactly what I was looking for! I have now gone on 14 trips!
I look around and see how crowded the planet is, how abused the environment is, and how profits often win over the environment. Something has to balance that out, and I’m choosing to be on the side of the scale working against those problems.
I was volunteering on a beaver trip in Escalante, Utah. The complaint at that time was that the ranchers weren’t getting water for their cattle because of the beaver dams upstream. We went to this beautiful lake, where we found the largest beaver lodge I had ever seen. We had an opportunity to help remedy the situation. We carried this giant 18-inch pipe up there, dismantled the beaver lodge, and laid the pipe down to feed water down to the ranchers. Overnight, the beavers re-built their entire dam over the pipe we laid! The lake stayed, the beavers were happy, the ranchers were happy…it was really fantastic!
Volunteer since: 2011
Total hours donated: 485