As I write this blog post for the Mount Vernon Parks Foundation, my last as president of this fine organization, I feel the need to recap, reflect and look ahead.
Mount Vernon Parks Foundation is committed to shining a light on our parks, helping to enhance, maintain and grow an already impressive line-up of community parks. Now's your opportunity to support the parks you love by joining us for our 2019 Trail-A-Thon fundraiser. And if you're wondering why support MVPF, here’s just some of what we've accomplished in the past year with the donations and volunteer support our community entrusted to us…
Here’s the highlights of what we all accomplished together during 2018 and what’s ahead for 2019.
For the second year in a row, MVPF has organized an educational outreach program that sent 450 Mount Vernon area 5th Graders to Little Mountain Park for a day of physical activity and appreciation of our prized local natural resource that is Little Mountain Park.
This summer our Trail Builders hope to brush out some sections of trail which have gotten overgrown, complete repair work on rockery walls, add rock armoring to sections of the flow trail, and take a well-earned vacation (August).
Everywhere you look, spring has sprung, and people are out enjoying our lovely Mount Vernon Parks. It is such an exciting time with spring sports, family events, and soon-to-be summer camp programs running throughout our parks. Our foundation is always looking for ways to support our parks and ensure our vision and mission to make our parks the best for their users and community members. We work closely with the Mount Vernon Parks Department in collaborative efforts to support or fund initiatives that benefit all our members.
As an all-volunteer board of directors, we feel a great ownership of our beautiful area we all call home. I want to take this opportunity to introduce our new Executive Board of Directors. Since March, we have had new leadership, and we are so lucky to have members stay on as we grow our organization. As your new MVPF Board President, I am so excited to take on the leadership role. For the last 3 years, I have been the board secretary. This was a great time to transition to a role that opens doors to new ideas and collaborators. My background is in environmental education, natural history, and program development. I am currently in my 14th year of teaching, the last 5 of which I have been teaching 6th grade Math and Science for the Burlington School District.
As the new board president, I hope to focus on supporting our past initiatives and creating more opportunities for family programming while continuing our equitable community access to all of our parks. Staying on as our Vice Co-Presidents are Paul Turner and Danny Pickering. Both of these members have put time and effort into initiatives such as the Little Mountain Bike Skills course, Heart of the Park, and Edgewater Disc Course. You will see Paul at member events with his 2 young daughters as they grow to enjoy all that our parks have to offer. Danny, as the past president, has been with the organization since 2016 and will continue to support and move ideas forward. You can find Danny out on the trail, building and maintaining trails with our volunteer trail builders corps.
We have added another great member to our board as Secretary, Ana Hobson Arnold. Ana is also a Northwest Washington native and a fellow educator. She has experience with the 5th-grade hiking program and is excited about expanding our family programming to ensure her young preschool son is getting to experience life on the trails and at their favorite playgrounds. Ana is passionate and excited about joining our team. Lastly, continuing on as our board treasurer, Dawn is a licensed CPA and has been with the board since 2016. She can be found on the trails, on the water, and walking her oversized Goldendoodle, Maple.
We want to express great gratitude to our executive board and our hardworking committee members and general board members for all that you do.
--Julia Pugh, MVPF Board President
Mount Vernon Parks Foundation is committed to shining a light on our parks, helping to enhance, maintain and grow an already impressive line-up of community parks. Now's your opportunity to support the parks you love by joining us for our 2019 Trail-A-Thon fundraiser. And if you're wondering why support MVPF, here’s just some of what we've accomplished in the past year with the donations and volunteer support our community entrusted to us…
