by Sue Ann Kendall
Last Thursday at our regular Chapter Meeting, we enjoyed our annual celebration of the holidays, but it ended up more of a celebration of each other. The setting was one of the beautifully renovated buildings in downtown Cameron. Many attendees reminisced about shopping in the building when it was JC Penney – one of us even worked there as a teen. Well, it’s a beautiful event venue now!
Attendees enjoyed a beautiful charcuterie selection and delicious beverages before sitting down to a truly delightful meal prepared by Hot Corners Catering here in town. Barbara does great work! Our members decorated the place beautifully, as well, so it was quite a treat for the 45 members and friends at the event.
After the meal we held our chapter meeting that included year-end reports from all the officers and committee chairs and welcomes to the new chairs. I was surprised during the iNaturalist cheerleader report by Linda Jo Conn, to get a nice certificate for doing WAY better than I’d expected at the Pollinator BioBlitz in October. I didn’t think anyone had noticed but me, but Linda Jo sees all.
There were some very touching reports from outgoing officers, such as Don Travis, who has been the Communications Chair since our chapter started out. We sure appreciate his work on the amazing chapter website. All the outgoing chairs got certificates of appreciation.
Of course there were members to celebrate, as we have had 36 members recertify this year, the most in recent memory.
Then came a real surprise for everyone, when our President, Carolyn, and our incoming Training Class coordinator, Alan, started running through which attendees had held Chapter offices in the past. It turns out that they had decided (on their own, by the way) to hand out special pins for service to El Camino Real Master Naturalist. How about that? When my friend Phyllis and I realized we were about to get bald eagle pins, we knew what we had to do and we FLEW up to the presenters (at least in our minds). That’s what former Chapter Presidents do, you see.
Other people who had served as officers and committee chairs in the past got different beautiful bird pins, too. It was fun to watch them come up and to see how many of us had served the chapter as officers and committee chairs. Some of the pins weren’t birds, but rather were animals that fit with what service they provided. I especially enjoyed that our frequent blogger, Donna Lewis, got a purple martin pin. That’s well deserved! And our resident spider expert, Eric Neubauer, got a tarantula, which was as close as they could come to a wolf spider.
As if all that wasn’t enough fun, we finished out the evening with our traditional Yankee Swap gift exchange. The usual plethora of bird feeders, bird baths, and bird houses were exchanged, along with other nature-themed gifts. Everyone seemed pretty happy with what they ended up with, even the funny gifts (after all, it’s supposed to be a white elephant exchange). I am afraid I got zero photos of the gifts, because I was tired from popping up and down to take photos earlier. So, you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’ll show you the gift I ended up with, which will turn into a butterfly feeder. The peace dove ornament came with it, and I love it best of all.
We look forward to all the activities we’re doing next year, and hope you come along with us as we explore the nature of Milam County, Texas in all its glory.
Nature Along the El Camino Real 