#GivingTuesday!
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Gratefulness and #GivingTuesday
#GivingTuesday Is here!
We hope that if you have set aside tax deductible dollars for giving, you will keep us in mind.
Without your support we wouldn’t be able to continue working on creating access to the water. This year we have been able to reach-out with our events in the North and South Sound, meet new people, and gain new ideas. One idea came from our meeting in Steilacoom to help create access to the water for disable paddlers by creating a better path and put-in to the water. This is a great idea, and now we just need to work on the “how”.
Delivering g new signage to park rangers has been a wonderful way to get to know them better and what they need. One exciting development is the new, dedicated site at Obstruction Pass. The park reached out for signage and stickers, and we are going to follow-up by delivering one of the bulletin boards made by our trail crew in Michael Silence’s garage. Here is a video on our Facebook page. 
We put Roche Harbor on the map, so to speak, as a day use site. Thanks to the management, we created an official launch-and-land site on the northwest side of San Juan Island. This is a good way to get to Posey and Stuart Islands, and to paddle around Henry Island. The west side of San Juan Island can be windy, with a lot of currents, and so this gives a protected spot to launch from. Roche Harbor is also a great place to resupply or stop for a meal while on a long trip.
Using Salesforce, we have been able to track site usage. We have fillable forms on our Volunteer Page. One is called “Volunteers, Log Your Hours”.
Our stewardship program is back in force and we have received many reports on sites we haven’t been able to get to.
Looking at the latest log entered on October 26th, it seems one of our members, Colin, visited several sites with two others.They went to Pelican Beach, Blind Island, Burrows Island, Deception Pass State Park, Camano Island State Park, and Possession Point. They noted that Blind Island State Park was full!
Our membership drive brought in over 100 renewals, and of those many are receiving gifts from Exped, Werner Paddles, The Kayak Academy, Paddler Supply, and Susan Conrad.
We had an interesting project with the scouts this year. Darrel, our president, is with Troop 827, and we started an Eagle Scout project to put-in a bat house at Waterway 19. From this we interacted with many land managers including the Department of Natural Resources, and have moved to focusing on Waterway 18 as Waterway 19 has too many pollutants.
We would also like to thank our elected officials such as Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Christine Rolfes and Rep. Rick Larsen for their work on the environment and in supporting access to the water.
More thanks go to our dedicated membership manager, Bill Brackin, as our membership has grown leaps and bounds after having fallen a bit a few years ago.
One benefit of using Zoom is that our board members can live in various places. Board members live in Kingston, Mazama, Issaquah and Seattle. We will be having a Board Summit in January to map next years plans.
We also have volunteers helping with our newsletter, website, volunteers and more; for which we are grateful.
One of our members said: “Everything WWTA has done and continues to do is a great success. It’s all important to me and to many others. I am truly grateful to have kayaked and camped at many of the WWTA campsites over the years. We have an amazing resource here in Washington state thanks to WWTA staff and volunteers”.
We appreciate and are grateful for every donation we receive to help us continue with our mission:
Through advocacy, education, and stewardship, Washington Water Trails Association protects and promotes public access to Washington waterways, shorelines, and marine trails for human-powered watercraft.
Donations help us carry on the vision of Tom Steinburn, Tom Deschner and other founders to not only create access to the water but to create and maintain more trail sites for human powered craft.
One thought on “#GivingTuesday November 30, 2021”
Glad to be a member but can’t volunteer or attend meetings from Boise. We enjoy what you have built and we do our best to clean up when needed, follow the rules and donate. You have a wonderful resource.