Take part in EarthWork Northwest!
The Student Conservation Association
Dear Potential EarthWork Team:
The Student Conservation Association, Inc. (SCA) is the nation’s oldest and largest provider of community service opportunities in conservation for high school and college students and older adults nationwide. SCA fosters lifelong stewardship of the environment by offering opportunities for education, leadership, and personal development while providing the highest quality public service in natural resource management, cultural preservation, environmental protection, and conservation. EarthWork Northwest began in 1994 as a project of SCA to involve Seattle residents in hands-on conservation projects in celebration of Earth Day. Today, EarthWork Northwest is the region’s largest one-day environmental restoration event. Last April 18th, volunteers contributed more than 14,000 hours of work throughout the Puget Sound. The day was a huge success with hundreds of trees planted, miles of streambanks rebuilt, acres of beaches cleaned up, as well as dozens of overused trails reconstructed. This year on Saturday April 24th, 1999 we plan to do it all again.
Choose a meaningful way to celebrate Earth Day. On behalf of the Student Conservation Association, Inc. I want to encourage you to participate in SCA’s EarthWork Northwest. The tremendous enthusiasm and volunteer efforts of your peers would contribute greatly to the success of this event. Please join us for the largest hands-on one-day environmental restoration event in the Pacific Northwest and make 1999 the year of your EarthWork Team.
Your team is an important addition to this event. An EarthWork Northwest team is a great way to build camaraderie, reinforce a positive image in the community, and perform vital work to improve our local environment. Trees planted and wildlife habitat restored help to make the Puget Sound a more beautiful place to live. Yet, EarthWork is about more than improving our local environment. EarthWork builds community. High school students team with businesspeople to restore salmon habitat. City officials and community groups clear parks choked with blackberries so that the EarthWork Urban Youth Corps can later reintroduce native seedlings.
Ways for your team to be more involved. Along with helping the environment, EarthWork Northwest has great opportunities for leadership development. For every 15 team participants, we need a Crew Leader to help educate the participants about the work being done and how to do it. Crew Leaders need to be safety conscious, eager to learn, and able to be responsible for up to 15 volunteers. We will provide two nights of training before the event, one logistics and leadership based and one based on resource education. At each project site we need a responsible individual to oversee and supervise the work being done. It will require communicating with the Land Managers and Crew Leaders about project sites, registering participants and dealing with safety issues on the day of the event. These SCA Representatives need to attend a two hour workshop to prepare for the event. A team can fill all of these roles and increase the effectiveness and presence of your organization on Earth Day.
I look forward to your involvement in EarthWork Northwest 1999. Please fill out the enclosed registration form and return it to SCA as soon as possible. The sooner we receive your registration form the more quickly we can send you recruitment materials to help you recruit a great team for EarthWork 1999. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (206) 324-4649 ext *826 or ewnw@sca-inc.org.
Best Regards,
Mike Klotz
EarthWork Recruiting Assistant