Each year the Green Mountain Audubon Center relies on close to one hundred volunteers to help the organization run smoothly; from serving food at our annual Sugar on Snow parties, to maintaining trails, to collecting data for monitoring projects. The Haidee Antram Scholarship award recognizes the work of one outstanding volunteer at the Center each year. This year’s award recipient, Gwen Causer, has been an exceptional volunteer for years. In fact, in 2004 Gwen and her daughter were awarded the “Volunteer of the Year Award” by Audubon Vermont.
Although this is by no means a complete list, the following are some of the projects on which Gwen has worked:
- As a citizen scientist she has monitored bluebird boxes and salamander condos on the property.
- She is a regular participant in our monthly bird monitoring walks.
She has worked in the heat of the summer to eliminate invasive plant species including Honeysuckle and Japanese Knotweed. She planted a beautiful fern garden along the west side of the Program Barn.
- She was the one mom who would always ask to be put to work each morning while her preschooler was attending day camp!
- Around the office, Gwen has done a little bit of everyone’s job from data entry, to research, to answering phones.
If there were an award for program participation, Gwen would win that award as well, not only for attending the pro-grams herself, but for consistently boosting our public program attendance by encouraging her friends to register. We can count on Gwen’s name always being at the top of the registration lists!
Gwen’s sense of humor has been tested on a regular basis over the years and we have found that she is willing to do just about anything. For example, she has performed in several preschool puppet shows, been dressed as a bird in public, and has even been trained to teach our maple sugaring program to schoolchildren.
Gwen is clearly very deserving of this award and we are very happy that we can finally give something back to someone who is always giving.
The Haidee Antram Scholarship will cover Gwen’s costs to attend natural history workshops of her choice throughout the year.
Kim Guertin is Program Manager of the Green Mountain Audubon Center, and coordinates and leads education programs at the Center.
