OUTREACH UPDATE
Geoff Niles instructing on mushroom ID at Severt Iverson Memorial Park.
Janice & Kasey promoting Umpqua Watersheds at a CFC event in Portland.
By Kasey Hovik
Looking back on 2022 we are very happy to be able to meet again in person. The 11th Umpqua Brew Fest was a great success. It was a lot of work to put together after not having one since 2019 but we couldn’t be more grateful to the support we had from brewers, sponsors, and volunteers. We will be working to solidify a lot of things earlier in 2023 including sponsors, promotion, music and volunteer recruitment. If you are interested in being on the Brew Fest committee, please email Kasey@umpquawatersheds.org.
In November, Geoff Niles led a Mushroom Hike and Identification workshop at Severt Iverson Memorial Park. We had a lot of participation and had great success finding mushrooms. We plan on making this an annual event with a workshop prior to the hike.
We got a lot of feedback in response to our annual banquet behind the UW building in May. It helped us come up with the goal of making significant improvements to make it possible to accommodate more events on our premises. (See details in my executive director update.) This will be more cost-effective than paying to have events at other venues, and enable us to better showcase our organization and support local businesses and community organizations.
Another important role of our Outreach Committee is to add to our list of volunteers and members. In 2022, we tabled at several events and held a volunteer training. We will expand our efforts in 2023 by collaborating with other nonprofit and community groups. I am very proud that through the considerable efforts of Janice Reid, we are now a Combined Federal Campaign participating organization, which provides Federal employees and retirees the opportunity to donate to Umpqua Watershed before taxes.
