Hello! This week wins the award for quickest week of the summer. It is amazing how fast time goes by when you are running around with kids, caterpillars, and coworkers. The relentless rain  this week made our camps quite interesting, as we also had a massive conference being held in the building. We originally planned on having the campers help with invasive species removal (see the Teasel plant pictured at the end), but with the obnoxious humidity this week, bringing kiddos outside to do manual labor was just not going to cut it. Thankfully, my friend, Anne (pictured below), began volunteering at the center this week and has been a huge help to the education team! A sadness struck the center as we lost 6 of the caterpillars to a mysterious black death. However, we have 7 successful chrysalises that will be monarchs in about a week!  Anne is also a recent OSU grad and just got back from England where she competed for the OSU Rowing team. Take note: Anne rocks!

This week I also had the pleasure of accompanying Dawn (Executive Director of Grange Insurance Audubon Center) to an OSU College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) dinner at the OSU Stadium. It was an event for the major donors to the college and I was so honored that she invited me, as I have mostly been on the receiving end in terms of scholarships/grants. The dinner allowed me to truly reflect on how thankful I am for my time at Ohio State. The speeches thanking donors really tugged at my heart strings because I know that I would not be here, in Columbus, with a degree from the greatest University in the world, if it weren’t for the financial aid that was offered through CFAES and the Athletic Department. I am forever proud and incredibly thankful to be a Buckeye and cannot wait to pay it forward.

I have also become quite interested in private/nonprofit partnerships and how both can support the mission of furthering a community’s well being. One of my focuses this week has been figuring out how to get local companies to partner with us. It involves a lot of application writing, but keeping the greater purpose in mind is helpful! It was great timing that the Columbus Foundation had Adrienne Selsor speak to us on Tuesday about fundraising and how it can actually be FUN! She really focused on the importance of building and maintaining relationships and the fact that the most essential aspect of fundraising is the people.

Pictured above is me measuring a very tall Teasel, an invasive species in Ohio that is very prickly! Like us on Facebook to see this week’s Flower Friday and learn more about Teasel!

Until next time,

Tori