December 2024
Month's Highlights
How is it already December, November flew by! We had a few school programs, our first weekend family outing for our outdoor equity program, volunteered for the Monterey Bay Half Marathon, and had our own community event at Natividad Creek Park! Luckily, we had some time to rest and recharge at the end of November for our two upcoming community events in December. The few days of rain that we got will be wonderful for our upcoming planting event. Little bright green sprouts have already started to pop up all over the hills! It's time to slow down and be curious. Be thankful for for this ever-changing world!
Upcoming Community Events
Everyone is welcome to our family-friendly FREE community events. We provide gloves, tools, and supplies. Sun protection, reusable water bottle, and closed-toe shoes are recommended.
We are currently in the process of planning upcoming community weekend events, keep checking our "Events Calendar" for updates or join us at DONS which runs year long!
EVERY TUESDAY | DONS (Docents of Native Species), greenhouse native plant volunteer group.
10:30AM-12:30 PM
Email Christina McKnew for more info.
SAT, Dec 7th, 2024 | Email Azalea Wiley at azwiley@csumb.edu
Marina Dunes Planting Event
10:00AM-1:00 PM
Location: Marina Dunes Preserve
SAT, Dec 14th, 2024 | Email Azalea Wiley at azwiley@csumb.edu
Restoration and Wreath-making Event
10:00AM-1:00 PM
Location: Natividad Creek Park
MCGives! is Live Now!
HSP is proud to have been chosen to be part of the 2024 Monterey County Gives! donation campaign. MCGives is a yearly campaign to support local non-profits in Monterey County. Each participating non-profit receives every dollar donated to them, and it is matched by the Community Foundation for Monterey County!
This is HSP's most important fundraising event of the year and we depend on your donations between November 14-December 31, 2024. Your support helps us continue our school programs, community events, and so much more. Be it by donating your time or gifts, we are so thankful for everyone who continues to keep the HSP dream alive. A big thanks to our volunteers, staff, service learners, and everyone who has lended a helping hand!
Visit montereycountygives.com/habitatstewardship until midnight December 31st to make your gifts to help us meet our goal of $25,000!
We will be asking for donations through email and our social media sites.
A Big Change at HSP
By Laura Lee, HSP Director
Education Programs Coordinator, Nancy Vielmas, leading students in watershed model activity.
At the end of this year, Nancy Vielmas, the wonderful HSP Education Coordinator and her family will be moving abroad! Although we know that this will be an exciting adventure for Nancy, Sam and Zola, we here at HSP are sad to see them go.
Nancy has been with HSP off and on for nine years ever since Nancy came to CSUMB as a freshman. With us she has been a student assistant, our AmeriCorp VIP and, most recently, our Education Programs Coordinator. Nancy has carried forward many HSP programs and she has added new family centered programs, such as our weekend field trips for farmworker families. We shall miss her great smile, her calm demeanor and her courage in taking on new and different challenges.
As this newsletter goes out, HSP staff are interviewing candidates who will have to fill Nancy's hiking shoes. We hope to introduce that person in our Jan 1, 2025 newsletter.
Sharing Asilomar Beach and Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary with our Salinas Families
By Nancy Vielmas, Education Programs Coordinator
Earlier this month, we had a family outing on a beautiful Saturday! We had a blast with our Salinas family participants. We started our day by spending some time enjoying the beach at Asilomar State Beach. It was a beautiful day at Asilomar, the kids were playing in the sand, sweet families were enjoying time with each other, and we went on the boardwalk for some wildlife sightings. We saw many seabirds, sea otters, and seals!
After some tortas on the beach, we went to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary to learn about monarchs from our friends at Pacific Grove Natural History Museum. We are honored to be able to provide these fun and relaxing experiences outdoors for our hardworking families. Thank you to our funders at California State Parks (Outdoor Equity Program).
Natividad Creek Park Clean-up
by Azalea Wiley, Americorps VIP
We had our first Fall event at Natividad Creek Park on November 16th! With 25 volunteers and 11 service learners, we picked up almost 500 pounds of trash! 494.21 lbs to be exact. We found a variety of interesting objects; we found two shopping carts, a tire, a pallet and a love seat! It was also a great day for cat lovers, as the cats were out and about on this beautiful sunny day. Many of our volunteers and service learners had a great time observing them!
Along with the restoration trash pick-up portion of this event, we wanted to honor Indigenous peoples for Native American Heritage month by reading articles and discussing in groups about indigenous experiences and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK). TEK is knowledge that has been gathered for thousands of years by indigenous communities about their local ecosystems and plant usage. We brought along some native California plants from our greenhouse and learned about their traditional uses.
HSP staff and volunteer weighing trash collected at Natividad Creek Park.
Monterey Bay Half Marathon Green Team!
by HSP team
Once again, we got to volunteer at the Monterey Bay Half Marathon with the Green Team! The Green Team deals with all the trash, recycling, and compost that the event produces, and makes sure it goes to the right places. We had 10 service learners, and Laura Lee came along! We crushed it and sorted all the waste in only 3 hours, with the help of many other green team volunteers!
HSP Green team poses at the Monterey Wharf after Monterey Bay half marathon cleanup.