Meet Your Forest: Friends of the Dillon Ranger District recognizes 2015 volunteers
Jasmine Hupcey
Meet Your Forest
This year marks FDRD's 10th anniversary of engaging enthusiastic volunteers, staff and board to provide stewardship efforts for the Dillon Ranger District on the White River National Forest.
Courtesy Friends of the Dillon Ranger District |
With the closing of Friends of the Dillon Ranger District's (FDRD) 10th volunteer season, we look back at four months of dedicated and outstanding volunteers. Thank you for taking time out of your busy 2015 schedule to help FDRD preserve and enhance our Summit County backyard — we are beyond grateful. To all volunteers who participated this season — you should be proud of what you were able to contribute to the care of our national forest, now and into the future.
This year marks FDRD's 10th anniversary of engaging enthusiastic volunteers, staff and board to provide stewardship efforts for the Dillon Ranger District on the White River National Forest. And this week will be the completion of a year's work for me with FDRD. Over this year, I have seen that it truly does take a village, or more so a county, to fulfill our mission.
We had over 1,200 volunteers come out over four months of trail restoration and environmental stewardship.
"It's so encouraging to work with such a dedicated group of people that share the same values that we do. We're already looking forward to having these good people out next season," said Doozie Martin, program manager.
This year we take great pleasure in honoring the tenacity and motivation that helped to lead our efforts with incomparable zeal and zest for the county's natural resources.
We honored:
Steve Alberico as FDRD Volunteer of the Year. He is not only a dedicated ranger patroller, forest monitor and Ski with a Ranger but also is a first-time volunteer at the ranger station front desk, as well as a contributor to our Summit County Recreation Guide.
The FDRD Ski with a Ranger Award went to Berry Skolnick and BJ Garcia, who single-handedly ran over a dozen Ski with a Ranger tours at Breckenridge Ski Resort. They would love to see you out there this year starting Dec. 18.
FDRD Youth Partner of the Year was SOS Outreach. We look forward to working with their new program director, Joan Dieter, next season.
Our FDRD Special Award for 2015 went to Joe Newhart who helped implement the new bookstore at the Dillon Ranger Station that opened at the start of the year.
FDRD Ranger Patroller of the Year was Ron Williford with 14 days of educating and reporting on numerous trails all over the county.
FDRD Recruiter of the Year was Tom Koehler who helped recruit volunteers to numerous projects throughout the summer.
Steward Family of the Year was Beth Selzer and her great kids, Jack and Willow. We've appreciated their volunteerism for several years running now.
Without the help of leaders in the community such as these folks, we would never be able to reach all the volunteers we need in order to provide crucial services to the Forest Service here in Summit County. I am grateful to have witnessed such a productive season and work with such amazing volunteers. It shines a light on my hopes for the preservation of our natural settings for years to come. Thank you to all who participated over the summer in the 8,565 hours contributed to the care of our public lands with FDRD.
Jasmine Hupcey is the office and volunteer manager for Friends of the Dillon Ranger District. She can be reached at jasmine@fdrd.org. For more information on the organization and volunteer opportunities, visit http://www.fdrd.org.
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