Annual Fund - Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve

Dear Friends of the Preserve,

I hope this finds you and your family enjoying the fresh air and verdant green of the spring season. Now more than ever, the energy at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve is palpable and the renewed sense of community is truly profound.

With close to two years under my belt as executive director, I’ve had the absolute pleasure of getting to know and working closely with many of you. We are doing amazing work together, and the beauty of the Preserve is that we continue to grow! With that growth comes the honor of welcoming so many new individuals and families to our gorgeous site and our native plant mission.

As we near the midpoint of 2022, we have celebrated several milestones that exemplify this remarkable growth, both inside and out.

We are welcoming families and the youngest generation of change-makers. We fully renovated our R.O.T. Plot (Recycle Our Trees) children’s discovery area with the help of a dedicated Eagle Scout candidate, and created the new children’s play area Sycamore Hollows, comprised of enormous hollow sections of a felled sycamore tree. And earlier this month we hosted Preserve at Play, a special day for children to explore, create and delight.

We are celebrating the highest number of active memberships in the history of the Preserve – over 2,000 and counting! We have been listening to our members and working hard on a plan to offer digital, paperless membership in early 2023, along with announcing exciting new member benefits.

We are amplifying our programs and leveraging our unique destination to make health and wellness connections for our community. A current example is a grant-funded pilot program: forest therapy for families of children with sensory needs, a first-of-its-kind program on the East Coast. If successful, we see potential to expand the program to support communities in need such as veterans that deal with PTSD and other trauma, patients with cognitive challenges such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and many more.

We have completed and approved our 2022 - 2026 Strategic Plan, a visionary collaboration between the Preserve staff, volunteers, board of trustees, key stakeholders and community partners that allows us to think boldly. I am exceptionally proud of the result, and thrilled to share our new mission and vision statements that remain true to our fundamental principles:

For this exciting momentum, we have you to thank. Whether this is your first year supporting the Preserve or your 20th, your confidence in our team and commitment to our mission is propelling the Preserve forward. All are welcome here.

Please consider making a gift to our Annual Fund today so that we may sustain this successful stride in expanding our Preserve community.

Thank you for your support and friendship.

Best wishes for your own happy, healthy season of growth!