Hello, VMNs. Stay safe out there in this heat! See our “Being a VMN Volunteer” section below for some tips on how to deal with the heat and air quality. When you come inside to cool down, catch up on the VMN program’s Bi-weekly emails.
This email includes:
Continuing Education Opportunity: Project Learning Tree
Project Learning Tree Virginia has mostly finalized its upcoming public workshop calendar. Please consider joining us for one of these training sessions to become an educator using this youth environmental education curriculum.
Summer & Fall 2024 Project Learning Tree workshops
To register: https://sites.google.com/site/pltvawebsite/workshops
For more information contact: Lesley Newman, [email protected], (434) 981-6742
VMN Snapshot
To help communicate and celebrate all that our VMN volunteers are accomplishing, we share occasional summaries of VMN volunteer service. Here are some statistics for January 1-June 30, 2024.
Volunteers who have reported service for Jan-Jun 2024: 2,430 volunteers (approximately 73% of all currently enrolled volunteers…that’s GREAT!)
Total service hours reported: 113,217 hours
Service Hours by Type:
Indirect educational contacts reported: 186,064 contacts
Continuing education hours reported: 15,397 hours
A Few Impact Highlights:
Way to go, VMN volunteers! Keep up the super volunteering, and remember to report it (preferably as you do it, or at least monthly)!
Being a VMN Volunteer - Heat and Air Quality Concerns
Many VMN volunteers spend a lot of time being active outdoors, as you would expect! Part of our risk management guidelines involve keeping yourself and others safe by paying attention to the weather forecast. At this time of year, both extreme heat and air quality can be concerns.
This email includes:
- Continuing Education Opportunity
- VMN Snapshot
- Being a VMN Volunteer
Continuing Education Opportunity: Project Learning Tree
Project Learning Tree Virginia has mostly finalized its upcoming public workshop calendar. Please consider joining us for one of these training sessions to become an educator using this youth environmental education curriculum.
Summer & Fall 2024 Project Learning Tree workshops
- 12 July - Rappahannock River National Wildlife Refuge Hutchinson Unit, Tappahannock, 8 AM – 4 PM, Early childhood joint workshop with Project WILD!
- 8 August Ivy Creek Natural Area & Historic River View Farm, Charlottesville, 9 AM – 5PM, K-8 joint workshop with Project WILD!
- 17 August Staunton River Battlefield State Park K-8 workshop in Randolph, 9 AM – 3PM
- 14 September Edith J. Carrier Arboretum, K-8 workshop in Harrisonburg, 9AM – 3PM
- TBD Estes Community Center Green Jobs workshop in Chase City
- To host a workshop, contact Lesley (info below). From July 2024 — May 2025, Virginia PLT is especially interested in coordinating workshops exclusively for VMNs in Virginia’s Southside & Southwestern regions of the state.
- Asynchronous workshops available anytime from anywhere
- Next PLT facilitator training is in winter 2025 at Holiday Lake 4-H Center in Appomattox. As a reminder, attending an educator workshop is a prerequisite to facilitator training. Email Lesley for details.
To register: https://sites.google.com/site/pltvawebsite/workshops
For more information contact: Lesley Newman, [email protected], (434) 981-6742
VMN Snapshot
To help communicate and celebrate all that our VMN volunteers are accomplishing, we share occasional summaries of VMN volunteer service. Here are some statistics for January 1-June 30, 2024.
Volunteers who have reported service for Jan-Jun 2024: 2,430 volunteers (approximately 73% of all currently enrolled volunteers…that’s GREAT!)
Total service hours reported: 113,217 hours
Service Hours by Type:
- Education/outreach - 22,891 hours
- Citizen science - 40,698 hours
- Stewardship - 29,103 hours
- Chapter leadership/administration - 20,525 hours
Indirect educational contacts reported: 186,064 contacts
Continuing education hours reported: 15,397 hours
A Few Impact Highlights:
- “Drew more volunteers to Tree Rescue program, helped a park within the Holmes Run watershed, and inspired volunteers to do such work at home on their private property.”
- Provide water quality guidance to James River visitors
- 8 bags of trash, two wooden boards collected (Walk Hampton Clean event)
- A bluebird trail is now established at Staunton River Battlefield Park! This will help Eastern Bluebird and other secondary cavity nester populations to flourish.
- Added hardwoods to land that has recently become part of the refuge to encourage native ecosystem to flourish there.
- Youth and adults engaged in water quality monitoring can see results for the last 6-year period of monitoring throughout the Commonwealth.
- Worked with other volunteers to bag 230 bags of oyster shells that will fill 1 tank of seed oysters that is expected to translate into 300,000 adult oysters being transferred into the Rappahannock River to re-establish oyster beds/reefs!
- We contributed data to the VDWR that will help them understand diamondback terrapin population and distribution patterns.
Way to go, VMN volunteers! Keep up the super volunteering, and remember to report it (preferably as you do it, or at least monthly)!
Being a VMN Volunteer - Heat and Air Quality Concerns
Many VMN volunteers spend a lot of time being active outdoors, as you would expect! Part of our risk management guidelines involve keeping yourself and others safe by paying attention to the weather forecast. At this time of year, both extreme heat and air quality can be concerns.
- Extreme Heat - If you must be outdoors in hot weather, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that you stay hydrated, cut down on exercise, rest often in the shade, and protect yourself with a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen. CDC Extreme Heat website and resources
- Air Quality - Learn to look up the Air Quality Index. Sometimes you can find it in a regular weather app, but AirNow.gov is a good source of information as well. Learn what the colors mean, and be aware that if it is going to be a red day (or possibly even an orange day, depending on the activity), it may be wise to cancel your outdoor VMN activities, particularly if they involve a lot of physical activity or people who are in more sensitive groups.