Volunteering at Fenner

Our guest post today is written by Cait Quinn, one of our enthusiastic volunteers. She writes about what it's like to volunteer at Fenner!

Hello!

My name is Cait and I’m going to be guest blogging for you all today! I’m a volunteer at Fenner and, like all of you wonderful supporters of the nature center, have fallen in love with the place! Everyday I come in, I never quite know what to expect. One day I could be emptying sap from maple trees, and the next I could be feeding all of our little creatures inside. There is always something new to help out with, and that sparked my interest to stay involved. I leave here always having something to talk about with my friends. For instance, did you know that Fenner used to have a prairie dog facility? After going through some files on my first day, I came across some old letters written by past Fenner employees requesting that the town of Lubbock, Texas catch and ship about a dozen prairie dogs to be a new exhibit for the nature center. What a cool thing to come across!

And in the Texan correspondent’s letter back to Fenner, the writer mentioned that they have been catching prairie dogs for many different cities around the US and even the world. Their most recent endeavor (as of March 1960) was sending prairie dogs to the King of Morocco. So our Fenner prairie dogs could have been from royal descent!

There is so much history here at Fenner and in our Lansing community that I encourage all of you to take advantage of. Fenner is so community oriented, and that definitely influenced my decision to continue volunteering here. Within the first hour I arrived I knew everyone’s name, they knew mine, and we could all joke around like we had known each other a lot longer. I think that’s the key to having such a successful nature center, because in the end, these 134 acres are for us all, not just those who hike the trails or study the outdoors. It’s for every resident to take advantage of! Come see our friendly turkeys outside the visitor center, hike the trails, learn about our maple syrup trees, sign up for a program and maybe even spot a deer or two while you’re here! And of course, come get to know the wonderful people who work for Fenner. We are glad to have you.

P.S. Join us for a pancake dinner on Saturday, March 17^th at 4:00pm to celebrate and enjoy all the maple syrup we have made this year! I was just outside today emptying all the sap, and boy do we have a ton. So come enjoy our delicious syrup with some equally excellent pancakes.