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National Volunteer Week
April 17, 2022 - April 23, 2022
Dear Texas Master Naturalists:
April is a celebration of many things! The best of those celebrations is YOU!! Today, April 1st, launches the start of Global Volunteer Month 2022, with the week of April 17th to 23rd highlighted as National Volunteer Week. April also has a whole host of conservation and stewardship events with Earth Day, Arbor Day, City Nature Challenge and so many other nature festivals and events taking place to celebrate the return of spring across Texas. In our minds, April should be recognized as Texas Master Naturalist Volunteer Month! The work done by Master Naturalists volunteers this month –and in fact every day of the year — is worthy of celebration on a state, national and global level!
National Volunteer Week (April 17-23rd) is an opportunity for our Texas Master Naturalists to be celebrated and to celebrate with each other. Watch our Texas Master Naturalist social media channels that week as we highlight the work of our incredible volunteers.
One of the most serendipitous events that could take place during National Volunteer Week is our first ever Texas Master Naturalist in space! Gulf Coast Chapter Member, Kjell Lindgren is a NASA Astronaut commanding the SpaceX Crew-4 shuttle to the International Space Station. Currently, the planned launch is for April 19th. Stay tuned for the chance to virtually downlink with Kjell form the ISS in an upcoming #TMNTuesday we’ll host later this summer! More news on that special event will come!
Rounding out our National Volunteer Week is Earth Day (Friday, April 22nd). Though these two special events are not tied together, for us, they offer a stewardship-focused capstone to one amazing week! And just think about the possibility of having one of our own being able to give us a view of our Earth from space on Earth Day! What better way to see the needs, impacts and true potential we have on our resources than with a view from the International Space Station!
All of these events serve as opportunities to recognize the impact of your volunteer service and the power of the Texas Master Naturalist Program. You ability to tackle our communities’ and society’s greatest natural resource challenges is unrivaled.
As a Texas Master Naturalist, you’ve heard us say before that when you put on the dragonfly badge, your name tags, your pins, or your Texas Master Naturalist shirt – you are part of something bigger. You are part of our state’s largest conservation and stewardship movement. YOU ARE our Texas Master Naturalist Family! And our family is awesome! Consider these incredible impacts of the Texas Master Naturalist Program this past year (2021) and through the entirety of our program since its 1997 inception.
You have:
– Helped to train – or become – one of our 474 new members in 2021 adding to the ranks of some 15,220 who have been trained as Texas Master Naturalists since our program’s inception.
– Contributed 442,595 hours of service in 2021 and more than 5.9 million hours to date!
– Your service in 2021 is valued at $10.18 million and more than $131.53 million to date!
– Obtained 64,551 hours of Advanced Training in 2021 and 877,664 hours of AT to date.
– Reached over 137,526 youth, adults, and private landowners in 2021 and more than 6.63 million people to date.
– Added 2 new acres under your stewardship and management projects in 2021 and you’ve made an impact on more than 229,100 acres of Texas to date.
– Developed or maintained more than 2,234+ miles of trail to date.
The impacts you and the entire Texas Master Naturalist Family make on behalf of our two state agency sponsors of Texas Parks and Wildlife and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, are noticed, felt, and appreciated more than can ever be expressed. Our agencies recognize the power of conservation stewardship and your volunteerism — and they fact that “it’s needed now more than ever”! We hope you and your chapters utilize this month-long celebration as an opportunity to inspire others to join your ranks as you shout from the rooftops how amazing you are!
Happy Global Volunteer Month
Happy National Volunteer Week
Happy Earth Day
and Good Luck to Astronaut and TMN Volunteer, Kjell Lindgren
We appreciate you! We celebrate you! We have so much to look forward to with you! You make a difference! YOU make everything possible!
THANK YOU!!!
Michelle Haggerty and Mary Pearl Meuth
Texas Master Naturalist Program Coordinators