We are SO proud of our dear friends, the folks that make up the Weekly Volunteer Stewardship groups (the Privateers, Wednesday Warriors, Seed Collectors, and Pluggers), for receiving the Community Impact Award, placing them among the winners of the 2024 Governor’s Service Award!

Since SWMLC’s beginnings in 1991, we’ve protected and restored habitat on more than 19,000 acres – and the Weekly Stewardship Volunteer Groups have played a key role almost from the very beginning, completing dozens of habitat restoration projects on nature preserves throughout our nine-county service area. In 2023 alone, they logged an astounding 2,881 hours, roughly the equivalent of two staff members (one full- and one part-time) working for an entire year!

Mitch Lettow, SWMLC Conservation & Stewardship Director, told the group, “These preserves would not receive the attention they deserve, and the work would simply not get done without you.” Noting that their model is a bit unusual, he added, “The difference is that you created the Weekly Volunteer Stewardship groups yourselves – with your own ideas and initiatives, with staff guiding along the way. It’s organic, it’s effective, and it comes from you.”

Mike Larson, SWMLC’s President & Executive Director exclaimed, “You all deserve much more than this recognition for everything you’ve done for SWMLC and our preserves!”

SWMLC Media Specialist Amelia Hansen added, “Their positive attitudes, can-do spirit, and passionate commitment to the environment is genuinely inspiring. They remind us how fortunate we are to all be working for something we care about – and the importance of finding a ‘reason to be.’”

On the Governor’s Service Award website, Governor Gretchen Whitmore said, “Community service makes Michigan a better place to live and every year, we get to honor some exemplary Michiganders who have gone above and beyond to make a real difference . . .  I hope their stories inspire everyone to go out and make life a little better for those around them. Let’s keep rolling up our sleeves to help our neighbor.”

That fits the Weekly Stewardship Volunteers to a T, especially when the “neighbor” is habitat shared by humans and wildlife alike. You folks are amazing!!

THANK YOU!!

We are so grateful to and appreciative of every single person who volunteers for us – whether you’ve come once or many times. Please accept our sincere apologies if we didn’t post a photo of you . . . we have thousands of photos and it was very hard to choose!

Photos by Kristi Chapman, Jeff Fleming, Amelia Hansen, David Riggs
Banner photo at top is of the “Savanna with a View,” a incredible habitat restoration project by the Weekly Stewardship Volunteers at Chipman Preserve.