President's Perch

by Cheryl Hart, President

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our 30th  Anniversary as a Friends group and our partnership with the Refuge. We held a cook-out for all our members at the Dennis Unit Bunk House. Walt Chuck, Project Manager Rebecca Chuck’s husband handled the duties wearing his professional chef hat. There was plenty of food for everyone—hamburgers, hotdogs and sides all topped off with Anniversary cakes, thank you!

Curt Mykut, Refuge Biologist and his band, The Dudes (that includes Mike Burnett, a long-time refuge volunteer) provided the entertainment. We knew these guys were talented at the jobs they do on the refuge but who knew they were also excellent musicians? The music was a perfect background for everyone to make new Friends and renew old acquaintances.

Among those who attended were some of our founding members including Jim Rapp, Tom Stibolt, and Lisa Brenner. It was wonderful to have them there to help us all celebrate what they accomplished 30 years ago and what we have all worked hard to maintain and continue.

Speaking of celebrations, please save the date, Saturday, October 14 for our Annual Meeting. You may remember that one of the changes to our bylaws at the last Annual Meeting was to change our Annual Meeting to October so that our fiscal year will be closed out before the meeting. We hope you will join us for another celebration of our accomplishments.

Have you heard about Brews for the Birds? This is our big Friends fundraiser. It will be held August 5th & 6^th at Langer’s Entertainment in Sherwood. This will be a family-friendly event. We will have a Beer Tent, 5 bands including Blues, Folk, Rock, Bluegrass, and Zydeco and over 20 local artisans and organizations as vendors. If you would like to help with this event, please call Bonnie at the Friends office 503 625-5944. Then support you Friends by attending this new annual event. It’s gonna be FUN!

Congratulations to Bonnie Anderson, our Friends Executive Director on completing her

certification as a nonprofit fundraiser. We are so fortunate to have someone with that kind of training to help lead our organization into the future.

Stay cool, everyone! See you on the refuge!

-Cheryl

Focus on Friends

by Bonnie Anderson,

Executive Director

"In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks"

-John Muir

The Friends and Refuge staff once again participated in a time honored Sherwood tradition- the Robinhood Festival Parade. It was a great opportunity to raise awareness of the Friends and the Refuge but also our upcoming Brews for the Birds Beer & Music Festival that will take place in Sherwood on Aug 5th & 6th. And although it was not technically a walk in "nature" we did receive a great deal of appreciation from the parade attendees for the Refuge and all that the Friends do!

The Friends are in full planning mode for our upcoming festival and we hope that you will help us get the word out about this new community event to support the Friends. We have an amazing line up of live music , arts and craft vendors, conservation partners and lots of donated local brews! All beer garden sales will go directly to support the Friends and the work that we do for the Refuge.

Brews for the Birds Beer & Music Festival: A Benefit for the Friends

We hope to see everyone out at our first ever Brews for the Birds Festival fundraiser from noon- 9 on Saturday August 5th and noon- 6 on Sunday August 6th.

We are looking for

• Festival Sponsors
• Nature inspired Artist to vendor
• Nature Photographers to vendor
• Conservation Exhibitors
• Auction & Raffle Donations

Volunteer needs include

• Auction and Raffle Sub-Committee
• Vendor and Exhibitor Sub-Committee
• Alcohol Monitoring Support Crew
• Set up/Clean up Crew

Please email me for details

We hope to see everyone at Langer's Entertainment in Sherwood, Oregon in August- and a huge thank you to Langer's for their support of the Friends and the Refuge.

See you on the trails!

Bonnie