Fenner Volunteerism and Development: Why I give to Fenner Conservancy.

In today's post, Mark Ledebuhr, a long-standing volunteer and supporter of Fenner Conservancy shares why he gives back so much to Fenner and to his community.

I don’t talk about this often, but something happened recently that inspired me to share my motivations for serving the Fenner community.

Mid-January I was at the Stewardship Network annual conference in East Lansing, looking around at the crowd of about 400 people. About 1/3 of them were professionals. The rest were simply private citizens, so passionate about improving their environment that in some cases they came hundreds of miles to improve their land stewardship knowledge and skills. Sitting in that group it seemed obvious that someone would want to be part of such a positive, pro-active group, yet the attendance numbered in the hundreds, not millions. Why? As I scanned the crowd, two things become fairly obvious quickly: this crowd of environmentally aware, eager land stewards are a) fairly educated and affluent, and b) not ethnically diverse. One of the keynote speakers even commented on the lack of diversity and the need for us to change that. He was right. Environmental awareness is everyone’s birthright!

The next weekend I was at the Auto Show in Detroit. The 100,000+ people that day were definitely diverse; in fact it was one of the most diverse crowds I’ve seen in a long time.

Why the disparity? I would argue two things: Access and Tradition. Cars are a part of everyone’s life, and the value proposition is universally clear: transportation, entertainment, a show of status. How many people can state such a clear value proposition about what nature and environment mean to them? There are so many of us never really take the opportunity to know nature. Too many children these days grow up with a disconnection from their natural world, and you can’t value something that you have no connection to. When we miss the opportunity to instill this connection, this wonder, in every child, we are all poorer for it.

I had the fortune of growing up at the edge of suburbia with miles of woods and swamp literally out the back door. I can no more envision a world without salamanders, crayfish, wild plums, and grouse than I could envision a world without roads and skyscrapers. Because of my experiences as a child and as a conservationist, I want every child to have access, to develop a personal connection to the diversity and wonder of nature. Environmental awareness is every bit as critical a skill in modern society as reading, writing and arithmetic- but it can’t be taught wholly in a classroom. Growing up without environmental awareness is like eating white bread- you’ll get by on it but it doesn’t really sustain you over the long haul. And, eventually, if that’s all you eat, you might become really sick. Where will our 13,700+ urban children in Lansing learn to connect with Nature? Who will lead them?

They can get it at Fenner. It’s not just kids. Nearly every Lansing area resident I talk with has a “Fenner Moment”- something positive that happened to them at Fenner, sometime in their life, which in some way made their life better.

Most residents in the greater Lansing region still don’t know that Fenner is a Public-Private partnership; leveraging scarce tax dollars into bigger impact with community support. I am proud Lansing supports this critical component of our community with tax dollars. And I am proud to do more. I teach a fishing class at the nature center in the summer, fix things around the center, and help out with festivals. I’m also a member of Fenner Conservancy’s Development Committee. My wife and I make annual donations, she serves on the board, and also volunteers in the Explore Store. It sounds like a lot, but it takes a lot. We don’t do it for praise; we do it because it is making a difference.

We are only two among hundreds of volunteers and donors that support the staff and programming - the heartbeat of this organization. Fenner is moving forward and needs your support more than ever.

Please, take stock of your time, talent, and perhaps your treasure, and engage deeper if you can- it’s worth it.