Happy New Year!...

That's right...we're at the very beginning of 2026, so I hope you're looking forward to a year of good health and great happiness!

New years are usually the time of reflection on the one that's past, and resolutions for the one that's arrived, so I like to start my messages for the new year with a photograph taken at  sunrise as a reminder that as much as every new year is a new start, so is every new day!

So, a little reflection for the CMNA year and 'our' successes! Thanks to all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes with your Board of Directors and Committee Chairs, we had a very packed schedule of outings, Think & Drinks and Walk & Talks, and a multitude of volunteer opportunities.

We continue to be the most active of all the Master Naturalist Associations in the state of SC, leading by far with the number of hours that you have served volunteering and the financial impact that has... not to mention the educational and conservational impact that has, too!

That's the reason we ask you to log ALL of your hours volunteered. What we do as volunteers makes a difference!

The CMNA has also continued to increase our membership and operate well within our financial means. The creation of the Awards and Charitable Donations Committee, which we affectionately call the ACDC, has meant we now have an active group of volunteers looking for ways to educate and influence our youth using the money that you have generously donated over the years, and we also started attending certain nature related fairs, setting up an information table detailing what we do as volunteers not only for the CMNA, but for the multitude of other organizations we volunteer for.

As for this coming year, all I can hope for is more of the same! I'm hoping that you will ahve noticed that you have been receiving save the date messages for the upcoming Annual General Meeting. This is your meeting, and we're trying something a little differnt this year!

The AGM will be held at James Island County Park and our guest speaker will be coming all the way from Clemson University! Mallory Maher, the Clemson MN Program Coordinator, will be joining us to share some news, we'll be having reports from many of our Board Members and more importantly we'll be inducting some new Board Members, too.

As a member of the CMNA, you get to vote on who represents you on the board, so I do hope you will join us on January 25th, and if you do, you'll also learn who is this year's recipient of the Carl Cole Service Award!

I'm looking forward to seeing ALL of you there!