Let’s Celebrate!
Mimi Cavender
From the Texas Master Naturalist website:
In 2023, the Texas Master Naturalist Program celebrated its 25th anniversary and 25 years of active, locally driven volunteers modeling conservation values and land ethics while sharing their knowledge with others through hands-on, boots on the ground action happening daily. Developed originally in 1997 with a group of conservation minded individuals from several state and local organizations in San Antonio, the Texas Master Naturalist Program credits its history to this group’s mission to put more hands on the land to build natural resource literacy and civic service. In 1998, the statewide program grew like wildfire with four chapters functioning and 150 volunteers working by the end of the year. As the saying goes, the rest is history.
The Hays County Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist™ was one of those first four chapters on board! So it was with special pride that membership, including many of the Spring 2024 Training Class under Director Mary O’Hara, gathered for a 25th Anniversary Celebration on April 28, 2024, at the VFW Hall in Wimberley.
Photos: courtesy Mimi Cavender, Mary O’Hara, and Tom Hausler
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
After welcoming remarks from Chapter president Bob Adkins, good food, drink, and fellowship gave these hardworking volunteers a chance to take stock of their quarter century stewarding the natural environment of the Texas Hill Country just west of Austin.
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
On hand were two original members from 1999, the first HCMN class: Dell and Gerin Hood, still volunteering strong.
Distinguished longtime HCMN Richard McBride received a special award as “One of a Kind Volunteer” for the sheer quantity and enduring quality of his volunteer service in the Chapter. With his signature quiet good humor, Dick encourages new members to try out a variety of service gigs until they find those aspects of the natural world they love best. He seems to love it all but has settled most comfortably into what gets him out on the land: land stewardship and habitat restoration. Dick is a great friend and inspiration to colleague Master Naturalists.
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
A burgeoning MN chapter like Hays County’s attracts members from all professional backgrounds. They bring their skills and interests to enrich Chapter activities. Thanks to a brilliant Texas Nature Trivia game concocted from scratch by two smart educators, Kristy Daniel and Jill Zipperer, the rest of the celebratory afternoon crackled with competitive spirit.
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
When teams of people who know their stuff compete for first shot at the door prizes, it gets secretive and then very, very loud.
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Tom Hausler
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Mary O’Hara
Photo: courtesy Tom Hausler
Photo: courtesy Tom Hausler
Photo: courtesy Tom Hausler
Photo: courtesy Tom Hausler
As 2024 rolls on through this new rollercoaster world of heat and drought, wind, freeze, and flood, Texas Master Naturalists will bank this birthday party, carrying the pride of 25 years’ accomplishment into what looks to be a busy future.
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Dick McBride — One of a Kind
Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Mimi Cavender
At the Hays County Chapter’s April 28, 2024, celebration of our 25th Anniversary, the huge Wimberley VFW hall was rattling with conversation. MNs are a chatty bunch.
But then—a hush. Chapter president Bob Adkins was back at the front with an announcement. There was to be a Special Award. The big screen flashed A ONE-OF-A-KIND VOLUNTEER. Richard McBride.
Applause was long and loud. This is a colleague loved for the length (now 10,000 hours) and breadth of his service, the quantity and quality of his work. The quiet depths of his knowledge. His generosity and encouragement to new MNs. The award is well named, well deserved.
Dick McBride with Charro watering station. Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Dick was himself—smart, to the point, unassuming, congenial—throughout his acceptance remarks. Here are highlights:
“I was in the 2010 class, the Prickly Pears. Chris Middleton and Jane Dunham were also members of that class; Lin Weber and Jean McMeans were class coordinators. Leah Laszewski was an important person in my MN career. She got me working on the Austin Water Quality Lands with botanist Dr. Tom Watson. Tom was a past President of the Hays County Chapter [of Texas Master Naturalist™] (circa 2005) and when asked what ‘that small plant was’ authored the statement, ‘I don’t know, I’m not a pediatric botanist.’”
Always attentive to the feelings of others—something that those who know him treasure—Dick added, “I realize that most of the [current Hays Chapter MNs] don’t know many or any of the people I [remember], but I wanted to recognize old friends…”
Dick McBride with Charro weedeater Photo: courtesy Mimi Cavender
Dick describes a recent “euphoria moment.”
“Driving to work one morning a few months ago, I was overcome by a feeling of euphoria. I WAS GOING TO WORK! I wasn’t sitting at home waiting to die. I was still contributing to my community. My Master Naturalist work is giving me three things that help with aging: physical activity, mental stimulation, and socialization. So far it’s working for me.”
And Dick thanked his audience—a hall full of admiring colleagues—“for being the socialization part.”
From northern Minnesota Dick recalled those remarks in a recent email, and chatting back and forth about this month’s violent storms, he worried—like many of us—about our trees, our roofs. Our future.
“My trees and house have had much destruction too. There is a mountain of branches (and one whole tree) piled along the street waiting for pickup by a city contractor, and today a roofing inspector said there was hail damage too. … Looks like my 3rd roof in 6 years is going to be needed. … We are reaping what we sowed. Unfortunately, the ones who will suffer most have not been born yet.”
Dick McBride need not be “one of a kind.” With his example to encourage many more of us, Master Naturalists will continue to learn, educate, and serve. Our will and our work can shape the future.
Dick McBride (checkered shirt) and volunteers at Charro Ranch Park in Dripping Springs, Texas. It was a chilly Saturday morning in March 2020. We had just learned the term “social distancing” the day before and were trying it out here. Masking was still unheard of.
Photos: courtesy Mimi Cavender