4,000 hours of removing invasive species, monitoring nesting oystercatchers, teaching kids about birds, planting a school butterfly garden and processing game camera photos. “It’s been fun” said Brigid Berger upon receiving The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Mid-Coast Chapter Texas Master Naturalist Meeting on Saturday, May 13 in Victoria.

The President’s Volunteer Service Award recognizes, celebrates and holds up as role models Americans making a positive impact as engaged and deeply committed volunteers. The Texas Master Naturalist program is a volunteer organization which provides education, outreach and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities for the State of Texas.

Berger, who has been a TMN since 2007 has also contributed her time and efforts for the Friends of the Port O’Connor Library, Port O’Connor Service Club, The Nature Conservancy, San Antonio Bay Partnership and the Museum of the Coastal Bend.

The POC Community Service Club is going on vacation! Well, sort of. Our summer schedule of one meeting per month has started. So, on the first Thursday of May, June, July and August we will continue to work on our many projects and outreaches in our community. The rest of the month our committees will handle the work as many members and their families will take time to travel, see relatives near and far, and spend time on good summer fun. So, if you are wanting to be a part of the club, we invite you to join us the first Thursday of the summer months for service, fellowship and fun. If you have questions or need POC Service Club assistance, please call one of our members and they will be happy to assist.

We have been quite busy. We awarded 2017 scholarships and will be telling you about our recipients in the next newspaper. Our Fall Garage Sale is early October, so we would love to have your donations of usable clothing, household goods, furniture, décor, sporting goods and other items in good repair to further our fundraising. If you have items you want to donate now, please call Linda Orrick at 719-650-3433, Diane Cooley at 903-467-6335 or Marie Hawes at 361-920-2322. They will be happy to assist you. Club members have baked and cooked and baked and cooked, providing food and desserts for community happenings like memorial services, Warriors Weekend Heroes and the Sand Sculpture Team, the Student Advisory Friends of the Library Bake Sale and other events. We also manned the food and drink tickets at the annual Crawfish Festival. It was hopping. Delicious mudbugs and lots of guests made for a huge success for the POC Chamber. We sure were proud to be part. Many members volunteer in varied roles for Warriors Weekend, end of school tutoring and activities and other goings-on. It’s a busy group that loves to invest in our community. We have a big announcement coming up about some summer movie nights we will sponsor right here in POC. Stay tuned for the details.

Did you ever think you might like to check us out? Thought about joining the POC Community Service Club? You can’t miss with this group! There are lots of projects and lots of choices of where to help. Come on over to the Community Center at 10:00 AM Thursday, June 1st and give us a try. We will give you first pick of volunteer spots for the next big project.

So, until next time, be safe, live simply, love openly, forgive generously and remember this quote by motivational speaker and life coach Anthony Robbins who said, ““Life is a gift, and it offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.” Come on, we will help you open that gift that has your more inside.

Intercoastal 4-H held their monthly meeting on May 1st, 2017 at the Port O’Connor Elementary library. We had our yearly officer elections.

Intercoastal 4-H club’s 2017-2018 officers are:

President- Brooklyn Redmond
Vice President- Antonio Gloria
Secretary/Reporter- McKenna Guevara
Treasurer- Alana Sanchez
Parliamentarian- Christopher Ritcher

We had a Bird Ecology on April 30 at Boggy and a Marsh Ecology on May 7th also at Boggy. Thank you Mr. & Mrs. Berger for hosting these events.
4-H members on the Student Advisory board helped with a Bake Sale on May 6th 2017 at 8:00 am to help raise money for the new library.
We will hold our next meeting when school starts back up in August.

Intercoastal 4H seining at Boggy Nature Park with TMN Brigid Berger

 
…that’s how the Intercoastal 4H kids saw Boggy Nature Park on Sunday, May 7th when Allan and Brigid Berger, Texas Master Naturalists conducted a wetlands class for them. Using Google Earth to zoom in to see the continent, the gulf coast and finally Boggy Nature Park, the kids got the global perspective. Then looking through an electronic microscope, they viewed live zooplankton that came from Boggy waters. After talking about wetlands, what they are and their importance, the group did some seining along the Boggy shoreline hauling in an incredible amount of grass shrimp, minute fishes and tiny crabs. Seeing the critters which the trout, redfish, flounder, birds, racoons and others feed on, the kids were witness to the food chain which is in constant motion within the bays and estuaries. The outing was sponsored by San Antonio Bay Partnership whose mission it is to protect, restore and enhance the natural resources of the San Antonio Bay System for the benefit of the ecosystem and its human uses. This was the second field trip provided by SABP for the 4H group. The first one, in April, the kids and their chaperones Birded Boggy, learning how to use binoculars and how to identify the multitude of birds which frequent Boggy and the Texas Coast.