Congratulations to Jennifer Seale!
Jennifer Seale was honored at the Heartwood chapter meeting on January 4, 2017. The officers of Heartwood demonstrated appreciation for her service to the chapter by presenting her with the Kate Hillhouse Award. Jennifer Seale consistently exhibited a patient and serving attitude as the Texas Master Naturalist (TMN) program transitioned to a new website and Volunteer Management System (VMS) in 2015 and 2016. She went above and beyond to ensure our chapter and members received credit for their volunteer hours and met state requirements for reporting. This reporting is essential to the funding of the TMN program.
Jennifer was given the award for her service in managing the volunteer hours site for our chapter during 2016. She has over 400 hours of TMN volunteer service. She became a certified TMN in 2014. Her areas of interest include water quality. water conservation and wildlife management. She is working towards the TMN Waters Specialist Certification.
Jennifer Seale (on right) accepts award from past recipient and chapter VP, Teri MacArthur. Photo used with permission.
Jennifer said, “As the TMN VMS Admin, I get a birds eye view of what everyone is doing. So many Heartwood members are involved in incredibly important projects – that not only advocate/educate for best practices when it comes to natural resource management but actually improving the health of natural areas, restoration, rescue, and rehabilitation”.
The Kate Hillhouse Award was created by the Heartwood chapter to honor Kate Hillhouse who was the quintessential Master Naturalist. She helped found the program in the state, then helped the Gulf Coast chapter in Harris county get started, and was deeply involved with our Heartwood chapter to set it up and got it going. She learned about nature, specifically wildflowers, on her own and was always willing to share what she knew with others. Kate acted as instructor, mentor and friend to many. When her previously defeated cancer returned, her biggest regret was that she could not be an active Master Naturalist.
The Heartwood chapter wanted to honor Kate and acknowledge her contributions while she was able to appreciate how much we admired her for the efforts she expended on behalf of our chapter and members. We decided to name an award after her and only give it out when someone nominated a member who has gone above and beyond in support of the chapter. The Kate Hillhouse Award has only been given a few times since Kate herself received the first one.
Past award recipients are Kate Hillhouse, John Warner, Anita Ashford and Teri MacArthur.
Carolyn Langlinais and Jennifer Seale awarded pins for 250 service hours at the TMN Annual Meeting in 2016.