By Ken Pitts
Vancouver Audubon sponsors a group for youth ages 10-18 years of age called Cameraderie, focused on learning nature photography. Shaunak Deshpande, a rising junior at Camas High School, is the leader of the group. He has developed and carried out a fundraiser titled “Wings of Change” to fund equipment for loaner cameras, bird education kits with binoculars and field guides, and habitat restoration projects. An article in The Columbian this week featured his successful and continuing efforts to make significant and meaningful impacts. The fundraising will continue into the fall.
One of Wings of Change events is happening tomorrow at Steigerwald Lake NWR at 8:00am, a Birdathon. You can be supportive of Shaunak and Cameraderie’s fundraising efforts by: 1) attending (all ages welcome) the event and helping to identify bird species, and/or 2) pledging a dollar amount per bird sp. identified by the participants.
I hear tell there will be donuts offered at the 8:00am start time, and watermelon toward the end, thanks to Joan Durgin who is the treasurer for VAS! Join and/or support this terrific effort!
Congratulations to Shaunak on seeing his ideas for making a difference become reality through VAS volunteering efforts and community support!