By Becky Lystig, MRVAC Board Member at Large
The Trumpeter Award is presented annually to a MRVAC member (or a couple in this case) who has given long term outstanding service to the chapter. The award was presented at the May meeting.
Anne and George have been active members for many years. Anne served on the Board from 2001 to 2010. She was treasurer from 2001 to 2004. During this time she was often out of town, but she always attended meetings via speaker telephone! She was President from 2004 to 2006. She has been editor of the Trumpeter from 2004 to the present – this means she was president and editor, two of the most time consuming jobs, at the same time!! She helps organize the Holiday Auction and keeps it running smoothly, as well as contributing many home baked items to it.
George was Field Trip chair from 2001 to 2010, providing an outstanding trip schedule that is the envy of most other chapters! He was Director at Large from 2004 to 2010. For the past 2 years at least, he has faithfully reported on MOUnet the presence (or absence) of the Screech Owl that roosts in their Wood Duck box in the winter, so that other birders can come see it!
Anne and George have for many years taught a community ed class on birding. In lieu of being paid, they gave Audubon memberships to all the participants! They manned the MRVAC table at the Living Green Expo in 2008, 2009 and 2010. They manned a table at the Kids? Birdwatching Fair in 2009 and 2010. They have led an incredible number of field trips for MRVAC, averaging around 20 trips per year! That?s a lot of trips. When someone donated over 30 Lenox bird figurines to MRVAC to use as a fundraiser, they offered to store them at their house, so that people could purchase them directly from them. (Such as when visitors came to see the Screech Owl!) They also carted them back and forth to meetings so they were available to sell. They also took the effort to photograph them and put the photos on Facebook as another way to advertise them
A big thank you for all you do, from all of us, Anne and George!
