By: Abby Weaver

If volunteering in the stewardship of Skagit Land Trust properties is not right for you, there are still many ways that you can support the Trust with your time and talents. We are always looking for volunteers to help with tasks such as membership mailings, assisting with local youth outings, and community events. Any and all volunteering is greatly appreciated by Skagit Land Trust staff and board.

Brenda Cunningham is a longtime volunteer who has helped with all sorts of projects, both in the field and from her home computer! Brenda has been volunteering with Skagit Land Trust since 1998 when she read in a newsletter that we were looking for volunteers to help care for Trust properties. Brenda says she and her husband, Tim Manns, “were thrilled to be assigned to Barney Lake” as Land Stewards. Since then Brenda has been an invaluable Trust member. She was on staff as the Stewardship Director for many years, and has served on the Trust’s Board of Directors.

Currently Brenda is working on an independent project that is a huge help to Skagit Land Trust.

She has taken on the monumental tasks of organizing all of the Trust’s pictures and videos into a new cataloguing system. We takes photos at every event and field visit and use them in a multitude of ways. Having them in an organized, easy to use format saves staff a lot of time. Brenda’s project will allow us search key words like “Skagit River” and all of the pictures in the database of the Skagit River will appear. This will make it much easier to find a specific photo. Brenda says she likes this project because it can be done at her own pace and can be completed from home. She also enjoys finding photos from properties that she has not been to yet.

“It’s fun to see all the smiling faces at the events,” says Brenda. “There is such a good group that volunteer for the Trust. Going through the photos made me appreciate the wonderful people in our community.”

Her favorite part about volunteering for the Trust is the people that she gets to work with. Even though some projects like the photo organization are independent, there is always a part of it that involves talking with staff and other volunteers. We are so grateful to Brenda and the whole Trust community for the many ways they support the Trust.

If you are interested in an independent project, please let us know! Fill out this quick survey and we will reach out to you.