This month in Volunteer Connection, we are featuring Sharon Plummer, the Managing Editor of our beloved Habitat Herald newsletter. While Sharon has served in this position since April of this year, she’s actually been volunteering with us since 2011. Initially, she came to be interested in our work when she noticed that our mission aligned very much with her own – she wanted to promote the conservation of wildlife and their habitat for their own sake as well as for future generations through education. Having been a teacher of environmental education a few years back, Sharon has always tried to live her mission to its fullest, and recognized that we can all give a little to meet this goal, be it through time, money, or energy.
While her hands may be more on the keyboard these days, Sharon still loves to get out in the field to get her hands dirty. “I [love] coming home tired and filthy dirty every night, knowing that I [have] done as much as one can do in a day.” Before she found us here in Virginia, Sharon volunteered with the California Conservation Corp and worked several projects such as planting trees and removing invasive plants. As active as our own Habitat Restoration team has been, it’s easy to say she can still have her cake and eat it too.
So what keeps bringing her back time and again to serve Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy? Like so many of our volunteers, Sharon’s motivation comes from knowing that the work she does is needed and meaningful. She specifically wanted to contribute to the Habitat Herald because in her own words “I love that it highlights the passion for the natural world in our own backyards. I think it reminds people to tune in to their own surroundings and helps inspire them to take better care of our habitats.” It’s easy to become overwhelmed sometimes with all the threats facing the environment, but as Sharon and the Habitat Herald so eloquently remind us: real change begins at home.
If you share our mission and wish to serve with us, click here for our volunteer page. Don’t have time to spare, but still want to help? Consider becoming a member or making a donation here.
Sharon and her daughter Sierra at 2012 Xstream