- Autumn York, Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Counselor: Autumn joined the PVAS team in March 2024 for a 6-month term. During her time with us, Autumn shared her naturalist knowledge of macroinvertebrates and fireflies and more with youth in our community and created a welcoming, inclusive space for her campers throughout the summer season.
- Charlotte Boncella, Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Counselor: Charlotte joined the PVAS team in September 2023 for a year-long term. Charlotte was a wonderful friend and caretaker to our Animal Ambassadors at the Case Nature Center. Their skills as an educator and camp counselor was evident to all those around them and was often commented on by teachers and camp families. Charlotte took on additional service projects in our community, such as leading efforts for invasive species removal from Town Run in Morgans Grove Park.
- Grace Worth, Summer Camp Counselor: joined the team in May 2023 as a summer camp counselor. Grace was a fantastic camp counselor – as one camp family shared : “Ms. Grace was wonderful, very warm and made an effort to connect with my child. Kudos to her for her work!” Grace went out of her way to thoughtfully reflect upon each camp day and planned special (and sometimes delicious!) activities for campers such as churning butter and making ice cream!
- Griffin Niamatali, Summer Camp Counselor: Griffin returned to the PVAS team as a summer camp counselor this year. From camper to counselor, Griffin has a deep relationship to PVAS camp. Griffin brought a smile and a can-do attitude to each camp day. Griffin brought extra pizazz to the camp setting by sharing some of his own skills and interests with our campers, like teaching chess, integrating science topics such as chemistry and geology, and playing the tuba!
- Holly French, Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Counselor: Holly joined the team in March 2024 and we are delighted to announce that she will be joining us for an additional full year -we are so grateful for Holly and all that she brings to the PVAS education team! Holly has extensive experience and know-how with working with youth with varying needs, including those associated with the autism spectrum. During camp, Holly really went out of her way to create meaningful relationships with her campers and to understand their needs. Holly is a great team player and creates an atmosphere of wonder as she and her campers explore and are curious about nature together!
- Katelyn Godfrey, Land and Conservation: Katelyn served as our half-year Land and Conservation AmeriCorps Service Member. She is a hard worker with a deep curiosity for learning more about the natural world. While working on trails, she could often be found with her phone in her hand using Merlin to listen to the birds or iNaturalist to identify plants. There wasn’t a single day of her service where she didn’t learn something new! Despite the challenges of a very hot summer, Katelyn refused to let the work on the trails fall behind. With the help of Lily and volunteers, she kept the preserves in tip-top shape for summer campers and preserve visitors. Her solo project was to research and create a protocol for a future Bluebird Trail at Cool Spring. Her work will allow us to properly install and maintain nest boxes for Bluebirds and to start a community science project where volunteers can monitor the boxes. Katelyn’s future holds a potential move to the west coast where I’m certain she will resume her quest for as much knowledge about the natural world as possible!
- Lily Davis, Land and Conservation – Lily served with PVAS this summer in one of our Land and Conservation AmeriCorps positions. She was a part of the Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area (AFNHA) AmeriCorps program, which was a new partnership for PVAS. Despite the challenges of navigating a new program and partnership, Lily handled all of her assignments from both PVAS and AFNHA with professionalism. She took on every task with a can-do attitude and never backed down from a new challenge. She also brought a great sense of humor to the Land and Conservation squad this summer. Her solo project was to create a self-guided Cool Spring Tree Walk. She identified and labeled 18 different tree species around the preserve and then assembled a guide book with information on each species. Visitors to Cool Spring will now be able to pick up the guide book and follow the trail to locate and learn more about each tree species! Lily is now back at school at WVU for her junior year.
- Sam Ellis, Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Counselor: Sam joined the team in September 2023 and has done so much for the youth in our community! As one teacher said ““I just wanted to reach out and say how grateful we are to have Sam in our classrooms! …he was WONDERFUL! All of our teachers raved about him and the content! This is such a great opportunity we can bring to our students.” Sam has a positive attitude that shines and through the course of his service, he deepened our community connections in Morgan County and brought his musical skills to the camp environment, both in the jazz-like ways of improvising/collaborating with his fellow camp counselors and through loaning and teaching about his collection of musical instruments at Appalachian Arts camp!
- Theo Madison, Summer Camp Counselor: Theo joined the team in May 2023 as a camp counselor! As a past PVAS camper, Yankauer has always been a special place for Theo and this year, Theo shared that love with so many campers and brought so much heart into his role as a summer camp counselor in other ways. One camp parent after Woodland Theater camp noted that “Each performance had an intent which each counselor pointed out – I appreciate activities in which our children are reminded of the importance of intent…I was especially moved at counselor Theo pointing out the importance of forgiveness after his group’s performance.…How important we are reminded by our children the necessity of living in and from the heart.”
- Will O’Boyle:, Environmental Educator/Summer Camp Counselor: Will joined the team in May 2023 – first as a summer camp counselor and then for a full year as an Environmental Educator! Will has been an incredible presence at PVAS. From dreaming of and leading microscope and environmental literature programs, to creating a log cabin for the Nature Playspace at Cool Spring (while teaching others, including youth groups, about traditional woodworking techniques), to sourcing grant funding, to developing the new Wild-Ology Science camp, Will has brought so much to our team this year.
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