KAEE Legacy Fund

I have been tied to nature since I could walk. My parents like to tell the story about walking with me and and our dog, Missy when I was two in the woods of North Carolina. It was Missy's job to bring up the rear, keeping an eye on me and alerting my parents when I toddled into the briars, or my shirt got snagged, or most often, something had caught my attention so that when Mom and Dad turned around to see what Missy was fussing about, they found me sitting in the mud, contemplating a flower, or allowing an ant to crawl over my fingers. When I was 6 I started accompanying my dad on his hunter counts, during hunting season, for his job as Resource Manager on the Thomas Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. I was always so proud when he "brought" Smokey the Bear or Woodsy the Owl to my classroom. Years later, after taking a Science Methods in a Nonformal Setting class as I worked on my education degree, my world fell into place. I saw how my passion of children and education and the environment came together in a brilliant flash. I knew that I would find my path in environmental education. I taught elementary school for 2 years, then got a job at the Louisville Zoo. Two years later I landed my dream job as Program Supervisor for the Jefferson Memorial Forest. There I taught children of all ages in the best classroom--the outdoors for 13 years. It was here I discovered KAEE or as a fellow board member says, "My tribe". This is an organization of people so passionate about our futures and our environment that they have dedicated their lives to educating fellow citizens of all ages. Members come from all walks of life--from education, industry, federal, state and local governments I am now Program Supervisor of Children and Teen Services for the Louisville Free Public Library at a library with its own park and recently rejoined "my tribe" and joining the board. I am home.

Raising money for this organization will be easy because I have surrounded myself with friends and loved ones who appreciate the natural world and children as much as I do.                     As a special incentive, those who donate will be the recipient of video footage of me completing a challenge devised by my husband Paul and/or my co-workers.  I do not yet know what that challenge will be--jumping into the Ohio River, dancing in public, wearing a costume at work, just know that your donation will not go unrewarded.   Hilarity to follow...