Leading up to Missoula Gives, the Watershed Education Network brings you reflections from former volunteers, teachers, staff, and long-time friends of the organization. They share the impact WEN's programs have had on them and how our mission matches their values. Here, a wonderful volunteer of ours shares her thoughts and reflections on her time with WEN.
By Katrina Thorness
What first drew you to WEN?
December 14, 2017 was the first day I stepped into WEN’s office. I had won a telescope from a raffle at Montgomery Distillery, which had hosted WEN for a Moscow Monday community night. Walking into WEN’s office sparked joy in my heart. There was so much life, art, color—and the warmest welcome from one bubbly Deb. I recall thinking, “This looks like a good place to work. I want to work in a place like this.” Later that night, I told my partner about my day and mused aloud, “I wonder if WEN would ever need somebody like me.” Fortune followed. That spring, one of my courses required logged volunteer hours, and the Professor had listed WEN as a qualifying option. I took it as a sign. Those spring volunteer hours led to a summer internship, which led to a part-time position. Reflecting on this time, I realize that I’m not sure what first drew me to WEN: a sense of belonging—or fate.
Why is WEN’s mission important to you?
Ideally, a mission statement
should “bestow an aura of being endowed with a sense of purpose—the
agency is charged with an important public mission, achieving it responds to
urgent needs, and past achievements are known.” Charles Goodsell, Mission
Mystique: Belief Systems in Public Agencies (2010). In my mind, WEN’s
mission statement checks all of these boxes. Further, WEN’s mission
statement endows me with a strong sense of purpose.
Working for WEN, I knew that
each task I completed helped children make it to Rattlesnake Creek, the Clark
Fork River, or a wetland. As a child, being outside calmed my heart. As
an adult, I now know that these experiences can foster attachment, which
provides the secure base needed to explore, learn, and relate. Through WEN’s
mission to foster knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of watershed
health through citizen science, youth and school engagement, and outreach to
our communities, WEN is not only promoting our environment’s health—WEN is
building resiliency in our children. This in itself is of vital public health
importance.
Ultimately, WEN’s mission is
important to me because I want children to feel valued and experience the
bountiful benefits of being outside with educators and mentors. I believe that
this attachment will motivate children to seek the outdoors and serve as
environmental stewards in their adulthood.
My opinion is that hands-on
science—outside—is more engaging than learning inside. Through WEN, I have
experienced the difference and witnessed children and adults thrive from
outdoor learning labs.
You can help WEN provide more hands-on outdoor science education for students of all ages by donating to WEN on Missoula Gives, May 6 & 7, 2021:
https://www.missoulagives.org/organizations/the-watershed-education-network
