Once again Santa and her Elf delighted everyone at the BWS Christmas Party with tales and a celebration of the work done by various volunteers. It is a hallmark of an amazing organization when the volunteers have this much fun together and still accomplish very impressive work!
Manfred Winter & Laura Winter
First, Santa highlighted some of Manfred and Laura’s activities within BWS. Manfred is a valued Board member and lead on the Bowser Pod sampling team. He is one of the founding members of the Bowser Pod. Laura with her science background has been a wonderful addition to the team, attending the two-day 6PPD-Q seminar and coordinating that sampling team for Bowser. She is also an active member of the stream sampling team. Oh! and if you haven’t already noticed she has far fewer years under her belt than the rest of us!
This Dynamic Duo, in their Bowser Pod inaugural sampling year, has done a masterful job. Sampling, of course, takes a team of keen citizen scientists BUT this duo has pushed the boundaries. Both have inquiring minds so when there was an evident anomaly in the Annie Creek turbidity parameter their interest was piqued AND the search was on! They traveled up the creek, down the tributaries, around the blackberries, all the while sleuthing for the genesis of the turbidity. Land titles were searched, DFO and the province were alerted, and official complaints were drafted. Both Laura and Manfred have the science background to really run with this probing research. We know they will scrutinized the results of their samplings and find the turbidity causing culprit.
Now I know you will all agree with Santa that this has the telltale makings of an intense and ‘in-depth’ investigation! And who better to carry it out but ‘Sherlock’ Winter and Laura ‘Watson’!
Marie Purcell
Santa wanted to celebrate Marie this year because it has been a rather tumultuous one. As you probably know Marie is leader of the Royston Pod for the stream monitoring program. She has set schedules and led multitude sampling days. So many that she can probably do calibration in her sleep! She ensures safety protocols and looks after the equipment maintenance.
But this year has had additional challenges. Many of you football fans may remember the 2004 Super Bowl when during the half time show Janet Jackson had a costume malfunction sometimes referred to as ‘Janetgate’. Well, this year Marie has had an ongoing ‘YSIgate’ – Not a costume malfunction but ongoing YSI malfunctions. Now this situation has not made international news like Janetgate but it has been a constant stress and strain on the sampling team and schedule. The Royston YSI has spent more time in the repair shop having its innards examined than the average Comox Valley senior. Seriously, the Royston Pod YSI has been MIA for almost 25% of sampling time. Marie has had to orchestrate borrowing equipment, arranging loaners and through it all she has managed to keep the schedule so BWS still gets the golden data.
Santa knows that all of you here would agree that she is a foundational brick for BWS and the Royston Pod. Now Marie has the ‘repaired’ YSI back in service but our Technician Elf thought it would lessen the stress for Marie if she had a back-up YSI that she could have as a standby unit – just in case! It may even be more reliable than current YSI!
Santa wanted to celebrate Marie this year because it has been a rather tumultuous one. As you probably know Marie is leader of the Royston Pod for the stream monitoring program. She has set schedules and led multitude sampling days. So many that she can probably do calibration in her sleep! She ensures safety protocols and looks after the equipment maintenance.
But this year has had additional challenges. Many of you football fans may remember the 2004 Super Bowl when during the half time show Janet Jackson had a costume malfunction sometimes referred to as ‘Janetgate’. Well, this year Marie has had an ongoing ‘YSIgate’ – Not a costume malfunction but ongoing YSI malfunctions. Now this situation has not made international news like Janetgate but it has been a constant stress and strain on the sampling team and schedule. The Royston YSI has spent more time in the repair shop having its innards examined than the average Comox Valley senior. Seriously, the Royston Pod YSI has been MIA for almost 25% of sampling time. Marie has had to orchestrate borrowing equipment, arranging loaners and through it all she has managed to keep the schedule so BWS still gets the golden data.
Santa knows that all of you here would agree that she is a foundational brick for BWS and the Royston Pod. Now Marie has the ‘repaired’ YSI back in service but our Technician Elf thought it would lessen the stress for Marie if she had a back-up YSI that she could have as a standby unit – just in case! It may even be more reliable than current YSI!
Sharon Waugh
Santa would appear to be super celebrating the Bowser Pod this year – and rightly so! In only their first year in operation they have chosen to monitor 8 sites as well as two 6PPD-Q locations. Sharon has been instrumental in setting all this in motion. And speaking of motion Sharon is one mover and shaker in the Bowser community. She is involved in so many community groups, committees and Boards that it is probably faster to mention the people she doesn’t know rather than those she does! Now this is a windfall for BWS because when you have someone ‘on staff’ who knows EVERYONE you can get a lot of traction – inside traction that is! Sharon has a business background and knows how to get things done and her networking has been able to highlight the work that BWS does and broker a few beneficial liaisons.
So now largely thanks to Sharon we have had property owners inviting us to use their property to access creeks, we have established water boards interested in collaborating, the BWS website sees more action, and the volunteer member numbers start to climb! We are so very pleased to have Sharon running on the team; she is dynamic, hardworking, smart, fun and as Santa’s gift celebrates – our well connected BWS Bowser Broker!
Mike Mesford
You folks all know Mike! So, you know we could celebrate him every day of the year. He is a tireless working fool for BWS. You may notice he states on his emails that he will not be engaging or responding to BWS ‘business’ after 4 pm – yah, that hard and fast rule lasted about 2 weeks and then he fell off the wagon. He has his hand in almost every aspect of the workings of BWS. He streamkeeps, he transects, he well dips, he equipment maintains, he liaises (he is very good at liaising!), he directs, he takes direction and he creates graphs.
But really one of the most favourite things he does and enjoys is HE DOES DATA! Yes indeed, there is no data left untouched by this man. He collects the data, or transfers the data or he may compile the data. He amasses the data with the metadata. It can be data-fun or a data-fest or a data-frenzy. But seriously from whence does this data come? Well, yes there is the well data, the transect data, the stream sampling data and his newest and most comprehensive data, that from the Troll under the Bridge. It is enough to make a man like Mike weak in the knees.
Now as if all this wasn’t enough for Mike this year (and every year) he was thrust into liaising with a consultant for the water quality data trend analysis and a consultant for data storage formatting, access and management. Anyone here see where Santa is going with? Yes, for those looking forward, say to the year 2364 – Simply, Mike is DATA!
Pam Lengyel & Lise Laguë
The recognition tables were turned on Santa and her Elf; a certain reindeer appeared to tell tales of Pam & Lise’s adventures with 6PPDQ monitoring. When not doing Christmas present deliveries, Santa responds to fickle rainfall events with amazing schedule flexibility so that rainwater may be collected at just the right time to catch those evil tire wear toxins. We are left wondering how Santa manages to fit through bridge railings to sample from bridge scuppers during these rainfall events.
Dave Weaver
Dave is our illustrious leader and one of his hidden talents is for creativity and frugal use of resources. One of our seemingly frequent finds along stream beds is the remaining bits of worn and battered staff gauges that were not up to the whims of Mother Nature. Here Dave demonstrates his creative use of these found treasures, and of course wine is involved!
The Twisted Staff Gauge Award: Jeanette Reinhardt
This is the second year presenting the coveted Twisted Staff Gauge Award – fondly referred to as the All Round BWS’er Award. It is given to the volunteer who has demonstrated diligence, flexibility, generosity, and above all, amazing good humour throughout the year!
Jeanette absolutely epitomizes this award. She is an extraordinary volunteer. This year she has stream sampled with the Royston, Fanny Bay and Bowser Pods – multiple times. She has been a repeat offender in the bottle and can sorting department and I don’t believe there is one BWS outreach event that she has not been involved with. She virtually single-handedly coordinated the Youth Media Project showcasing BWS’s collaboration with the Comox Art Gallery to produce our video A Watershed Moment. Thanks to her we have the Comox Valleys only watershed jeopardy game! All of this is accompanied with her generous good humour. Last but not least, her flexibility, and if you were at yoga last Tuesday night you would know what I mean!
Many thanks Jeanette and Congratulations!