Core Goal 1: Build Local Capacity

ACCT OSM/VISTAs assist their hosts with long-term planning, fundraising, facilitating partnerships, recruiting volunteers and promoting the organization's mission and accomplishments. In the last quarter:

Kim Steese Creates a Database to Aid Sustainability  

OSM/VISTA Kim Steese (OH), OSM/VISTA with Friends of the Lower Muskingum River (FLMR), has been working to develop FLMR’s monitoring system.  In the past, the data collected by FLMR was not recorded digitally and the hardcopies were sometimes misfiled. Steese’s new monitoring plan allows volunteers to select their preferred sites, and once data is collected it is entered into a new database. 

OSM/VISTA Kim Steese (second from left) with Marietta College students after a trash cleanup for Community Service Day.

 

Steese has also been developing a manual for future volunteers and FLMR staff, which contains information on what data to collect, how to collect the data, proper equipment maintenance, and more.  In addition, the manual lays out the future plans for the Stream Team program.

Water monitoring plays an important part in the health of the community, due to acid mine drainage and other pollutants that trouble the local waterways. The database developed by Steese allows FLMR to record and track the information collected by volunteers, so that the community can utilize it in the future.

Krystle Chipman Participates in Successful Fundraising Campaign 

OSM/VISTA Krystle Chipman and the Pathfinders of Perry County participated in a whirlwind fundraising campaign through Run for the Hills Charity Challenge sponsored by the Community Foundation of Hazard and Perry County.

OSM/VISTA Krystle Chipman and a participant at a Pathfinders event.

 

Between August 1, 2011 and October 31, 2011 Pathfinders fundraised by holding restaurant nights, 5K walks/runs, concession sales, etc. Whatever Pathfinders could raise in this time period, The Community Foundation of Hazard and Perry County would match. Pathfinders raised $8,096.86 and were presented with a check for an additional $8,096.86 at a celebration breakfast on December 9, 2011. The additional $8,096.86 will be used in an endowment fund for Pathfinders.