By Amy Boyd
On April 24th the Chapter held the Board of Director elections. We are pleased to introduce you to two new board members, Anna Whitmer and Kandace Glanville.
Anna is currently serving as the Field Trip Chair – which is a really big job, and we are grateful for her expertise. Anna is an outstanding birder and is dedicated to helping others learn about birds and our natural world. Anna is currently working at the Wild Birds Unlimited, Sawmill store where she helps customers solve problems with backyard wildlife and answers bird related questions. Anna is also very involved with Black Swamp Bird Observatory and volunteers as a field guide for The Biggest Week in American Birding Festival. Anna brings great birding expertise to Columbus Audubon and we are excited that she will be joining us on the board. When asked what motivates her to serve on the board, she said:
“I’m relatively new to the Columbus area and I would like to be part of the birding community. I would like to share my ideas with others that support avian and local habitat conservation. I’m interested in getting more younger people involved with CA and in expanding the range of field trips offered”.
Kandace is currently the Co-President of The Ohio State University Ornithology Club. She is excited to collaborate with Columbus Audubon and so are we. Kandace also serves as a volunteer at Black Swamp Bird Observatory working at the banding station for the past three migration seasons. She is also involved in Ohio Nature Education and Lights Out Columbus/ Lights Out Buckeyes.
When asked what motivates her to serve on the board, she said: “I love Columbus, and I want to give back to the area. I want to see birds protected as well as they can be. By instilling a sense of appreciation for wildlife in the general public, and protecting habitat for birds, we can have a huge positive impact on avian populations and I want to see that happen”.
Please join us in welcoming these young women to Chapter Leadership.
Two very deserving Audubon Members were honored with awards.
The recipient of Song Sparrow Award was Angelika Nelson
The Song Sparrow Award was created to recognize outstanding contributions by Audubon members who promote CA’s mission, often over the course of years. The Song Sparrow Award was established to commemorate Margaret Morse Nice’s groundbreaking scientific contributions on the life histories of Song Sparrows.
Angelika Nelson is a current member of the Columbus Audubon Board. She has stepped up every time she has been asked to and has volunteered to lead even when not asked. She has served on the Conservation Committee and has been a driving force on that committee. She stepped up to lead our communication efforts, editing the newsletter and doing all of the FB announcements for the past year. She has started a new National Citizen Science program, called Climate Watch. She also brings the bird specimens every month for our bird quiz.
Angelika has been a beloved Program Leader at EcoWeekend since 2014 and she has contributed valuable ideas and energy into improving EcoWeekend year after year. Angelika knows her birds and her pleasant and sparkling personality makes her a welcome member of our leadership team. She will be missed for the expertise she brings to Columbus Audubon in myriad ways: for the depth of her knowledge of birds, her rock solid scientific approach to problem solving and her forward thinking when it comes to understanding the power of social media. Angelika will be moving back to Germany in July and she will be greatly missed!
The recipient of the James Chase Hambleton Award was Tom Sheley.
We were pleased and honored to present the Columbus Audubon’s 2018 James Chase Hambleton Award. This award recognizes outstanding contributions by members or non-members who promote Columbus Audubon’s mission, particularly in the areas of conservation and education. This year’s recipient has indeed supported conservation and education, but has not stopped there, making contributions in every area imaginable.
As a board member, Tom may have set some record in terms of length of service. That’s not because we couldn’t find anyone else! It’s because he has consistently approached board service in a thoughtful way, offering imaginative approaches, and with utmost respect for colleagues.
You want conservation? Tom has “conservation fingerprints” all over our central Ohio region. To take just two recent examples: If you have enjoyed seeing birds at Green Lawn feeding on insects and seeds on native plants in the spring and summer, or snatching seeds from well-stocked feeders in the winter, you can thank Tom Sheley. If you have enjoyed a peaceful walk at our beautiful Calamus Swamp preserve – and no branches from dead Ash trees have fallen on your head – you should pause to thank him again. And those are just a couple of recent efforts, because our honoree has been at it for years.
You know, it’s just a fact of life that any organization seeking to do good in the community, including Columbus Audubon, needs funding. Tom understands this and has been a great part of keeping Columbus Audubon financially strong. Tonight’s award recipient has been a major fundraiser in the Birdathon for years, the leader of a team that consistently tops the charts in terms of money raised – and in terms of birds seen on Birdathon day! But even this is exceeded by his own generosity. Oh sure, he has made direct financial contributions to Columbus Audubon. But far more than that: Tom has made his business, Wild Birds Unlimited, the headquarters for the annual Columbus Audubon Bird Seed Sale, making sure that all of the profits from the sale, year after year, flow directly back to Columbus Audubon. Tom is going off the board this year, after a total of 22 years since the ‘90’s. We are proud and happy to call Tom Sheley our friend and will miss him at the board meetings.
Photos by Sheila M. Fagan:
