Happy Holidays Master Naturalist Friends!

I hope that wherever life takes you around this holiday season–whether it’s with family, on a vacation, or lazing around with a pet– that you are able to relax and reflect on the events of the year. While 2024 has been eventful, I want to thank all of you reading this for being a part of this community. No matter where your journey has taken you this year, I hope we can all take pride in our mission of connecting others with the natural world.

Throughout the year, we at CMNA have explored a little bit of a lot of things! As I write this, we have dedicated birders participating in the 125th (you read that right!) Christmas Bird Count. In a few weeks, we will have had two different movie screenings at the Sewee Visitor and Environmental Education Center that featured stories of conservation. Our monthly ‘Think and Drink’ and ‘Walk and Talk’ series have been consistently attended by members who learned topics that spanned the gamut of our conservation efforts in the Lowcountry. Our volunteers picked up nurdles, maintained gardens, removed invasive plants and taught education programs. All of this reminds me of our impact in the lowcountry. It gives me hope that we cancreate compassion amongst each other and for all living beings.

I wanted to keep it short this time around, in the hopes that we can all take some time to reflect and appreciate each other for our shared love of the natural world. Thank you all for being an amazing community,

Allyssa Zebrowski