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Honoring One of Our Own

This past summer, Mark Nelson, a Recreation Equipment, Inc. (REI) employee, nominated BRMC for our exceptional work in environmental stewardship and promoting outdoor recreation. BRMC in turn was asked to nominate one volunteer to compete for the REI Stewards for the Environment Award. REI is a national retail cooperative providing quality outdoor gear and apparel. Six winners of the national award were announced this fall and our nominee was one of them. We would like to share her story.

Sarah Christian has been a volunteer in a number of capacities for BRMC for three years. She has successfully and independently raised funds for BRMC, raised awareness of the programs we offer in her community, sponsored BRMC programs at local schools, assisted with natural history inventories, helped out with our Halloween Safari, and for the last two years served as a volunteer intern at our popular summer children's camps. Sarah exhibits all of the traits one hopes for from a volunteer: passion for protecting our environment, reliability, diversity of talents, self-motivation, willingness to do the most menial task with a smile, great ideas, and the ability to work well with the public. Unlike most of our volunteers, however, Sarah is just 16 years old.

I got to know Sarah the summer of 2003, when she contacted me to request brochures about BRMC and our summer programs that she could display at her booth at the Archwood Barns Farmers' Market in The Plains, Virginia. Sarah, then 13 years old, explained that she and her little sister had a small business (named "Naturally Good") in which they sold homebaked- from-scratch breads and pastries, and donated the profits to charity. The previous year, they had chosen a local animal shelter to raise funds and awareness for at their booth, but for this year they had chosen BRMC. Throughout the summer they baked on Saturdays, and sold on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Some of their specialties were baguettes, gingerbread, and dog biscuits. The money they raised was modest (roughly $500), but the goodwill and outreach to the community was priceless. I stopped by the barn with my wife one Sunday to see Sarah's business firsthand, and to see if, perhaps, there was a parent's hand behind it all. But no, Sarah and Rachel were at their booth, unaccompanied, but fiercely protected by the other vendors. I remember asking what their parents thought about their business and they grimaced and told me they were on notice that if they didn't clean up the kitchen before leaving for the market next week, there would be a hostile takeover and foreclosure.

Impressed by Sarah's maturity and easy rapport with the public, I asked Sarah to help out that fall with our Halloween Safari. This is one of BRMC's signature events, offering a non-scary nighttime foray into the mountains where children and adults meet native "wildlife" that performs amazing natural history skits. For three hours in the cold, Sarah cheerfully painted whatever children requested on their cheeks as they awaited their turn to climb the mountain.

Sarah's dedication as a volunteer was not seasonal. During the school year, Sarah introduced her school to BRMC by advocating for the beginning of a Wakefield Conservation Club that utilized the Bull Run Mountains and BRMC staff to further students' interest in the outdoors. By introducing us to the Wakefield School community, Sarah helped establish a growing relationship that has benefited both parties. From the initial program Sarah encouraged, a bat house workshop, we have become part of the elementary school program with an on-campus nature camp throughout the school year, served the middle school program as a naturalist guide in Costa Rica, and presented at the annual high school science career day.

The following summer, when I learned Sarah was taking a break from baking, I invited her to help out as a volunteer intern for our herpetology and nature camps. Sarah accepted, and I discovered new depths to Sarah's personality and abilities. Her quiet but warm presence had a wonderful calming effect on small children experiencing extreme cases of separation anxiety. She had a special talent for noticing the children on the fringes of the group and drawing them in. She not only studied and learned the materials I sent her on herpetology, but she contributed her own knowledge of the woods to the kids and demonstrated the ethic of treating other living creatures with respect and awe. She was as loving as a mother to the child who stepped in a ground bee nest and was stung repeatedly. He came back the next day to all of our surprise.

This year, Sarah is starting to help with our research. She has joined us for our ongoing rattlesnake study and moth survey. She also became one of the characters in our Halloween Safari: a turkey vulture. Sarah is a natural leader and leads in the most impressive way possible-by doing quietly. She maintains an "almost straight-A" average at school. Sarah is truly deserving of recognition for her work here at BRMC and for her efforts throughout her sphere, but is probably completely unaware of just how special she is.

Sarah, and five other recipients across the country, will each receive a commemorative award and a $500 REI gift card. REI will also donate a total of $120,000 in environmental stewardship project grants-$20,000 to each of the organizations where the recipients volunteer; in Sarah's case, Bull Run Mountains Conservancy. We hope that Sarah now recognizes how special she is.

BRMC and REI will recognize and thank Sarah at our annual fundraising event on February 21, 2005, at Grace Episcopal Church in The Plains. Please contact us at 703-753-2631 or mk@brmconservancy.org for more details.