Sponsor Spotlight: Van Ness Feldman
We want to extend a big thank you to all of last week’s sponsors of Evening on the Lake. NatureBridge is fortunate to work with so many like-minded individuals and organizations who support our programs. This generosity continues to fuel our efforts to connect more kids to science, nature and stewardship. NatureBridge is so grateful for the impact of this year’s event, which raised $240,000.
Van Ness Feldman is delighted to once again have been a sponsor our annual Evening on the Lake event. The NatureBridge mission intersects with Van Ness Feldman’s long history of representing concessionaires and other organizations that facilitate public use and enjoyment of our national lands.
Nationally recognized as a thought leader, Van Ness Feldman is highly distinguished for its work in energy, environment, land use, real estate, government relations and native affairs matters. Since its founding in 1977, the firm has played a role in all crucial energy and environmental policy legislative or regulatory initiatives impacting our country.
NatureBridge provides many of our students their earliest encounters with national parks and these young people, in turn, become stewards of national lands and the environment. The mission is important to Van Ness Feldman and the Evening on the Lake celebration of NatureBridge in Olympic National Park is a particularly special event to the firm. Van Ness Feldman Senior Policy Advisor, and former congressman, Norm Dicks, has a long and deep history with the restoration of the Elwha River. Students who attend our programs in Olympic have the unique opportunity to learn about environmental restoration and recovery through the Elwha River watershed.
In a climate-changed world, an understanding of scientific thinking is essential to finding consensus and solutions and we are honored to support NatureBridge’s science educators in bringing the science method to life.Van Ness Feldman
“Congratulations, NatureBridge, on all of your successes and best wishes for a long and bountiful future educating our youth to the wonder and science of the natural world!” -Van Ness Feldman
Stories
Fall Reflections from NatureBridge Yosemite
As an environmental science educator, I spend a lot of time teaching about nature, but this season I’ve been finding that as it turns out, nature has a lot to teach us, too. Sometimes I can let the trees, the meadow, and the lichen teach for me. They show us how to respect each other’s boundaries, how to celebrate differences, how to work together, and how to lean on each other’s strengths in order to exist in a new place. These lessons felt incredibly relevant to me heading into the first week of November, a notoriously busy time at NatureBridge Yosemite. I wanted to focus on messages of kindness and inclusivity with my students, I wanted them to feel a sense of belonging in this new space, and I also hoped that they would share those messages with others.
An Incredible 10th Anniversary of Evening on the Lake
On October 25, the Amazon Meeting Center in downtown Seattle buzzed with celebratory energy as over 300 NatureBridge guests and supporters gathered for the 10th anniversary of "Evening on the Lake," our signature Pacific Northwest fundraising event for our Olympic campus.
"Science became fun" at NatureBridge for Alum Laura Lomeli Russert
Laura Lomeli Russert is a NatureBridge alum who grew up in Groveland, CA and now calls Washington, D.C. home. Laura’s journey with NatureBridge began when she attended the Golden Gate campus as a young student with her class from Tenaya Elementary. Laura credits NatureBridge with shaping not only her love for nature but also her passion for education and science. "Science became fun,” she recalls. “You weren’t learning from a textbook anymore, and it became so much more real." Her hands-on, scientific experiences at NatureBridge laid the foundation for her eventual pursuit of a Ph.D. in psychology. “I feel like I owe a lot to NatureBridge."