L: Long-term ORAS board member Mary Case, first recipient of the CASE Award, with Secretary Alison Huff.
R: New ORAS President Leila Dasher (Center) surrounded by ORAS board members.
I am delighted to announce that at the ORAS June potluck, Leila Dasher was unanimously voted in as our next ORAS President! Leila has been an enthusiastic attendee at our speaker meetings and bird walks, served as a volunteer at various ORAS-sponsored activities, participated the Christmas Bird Count and the All Women's Birding Bust, and brought the house down with her Cooper'sHawky poem at our member's night (also featured in our June newsletter). I'm sure Leila will breathe new energy and enthusiasm into the role, and it will be great to have a Madam President at the helm again after a gap of several years! Brian Cooke will continue as VP, Mary Case as Secretary, and Alison Huff as Treasurer.
We also celebrated Mary Case's birthday 6 months early, and acknowledged her decades of service to ORAS with a cake decorated with our logo, and by declaring her the first recipient of our Care And Service to the Environment (CASE - geddit?) award. Thanks for everything you have done for us, Mary!
Thanks to the generous contributions of our ORAS members, we were able to award 4 small grants this spring; Shannon Curry of UGA, and Cema Wallace and Suki Jansen of ACC recycling were awarded grants to provide materials for nature education and outreach, Lee Hartle received funds to improve habitat in Winterville's Pittard Park, and UGA's Ricki Olden will use her funds to research Ring-necked Duck health at the Savannah River Site.