Friends of White Clay Creek State Park

2008 Summary of Activities

This year, our 62 volunteers contributed 3,067 hours of volunteer time in support of the park, making this our 6th consecutive year with more than 3,000 hours of volunteer work. In September, the Friends received an Award for Outstanding Interpretive Support from the National Association for Interpretation, and, in December, Friends treasurer Ken Daws received a Volunteer of the Year Award from the Division of Parks and Recreation.

Our 2008 work involved some changes and new initiatives, including:

• Greatly increasing our funding for scholarships for underprivileged children to participate in educational programs given by the nature center staff. Our budget includes further increases for this purpose in 2009.
• Purchasing a storage shed to provide much needed additional space at the nature center. The shed is currently being installed and fitted out by a Friends volunteer.
• Expanding our bluebird nestbox project to 84 boxes, fledging 122 bluebirds, 88 tree swallows, and 58 house wrens this year.

We also continued a solid base of ongoing volunteer projects, including:

• Advocacy for open space preservation in Delaware, with a special focus on the park area,
• Trail upgrades and cleanups, plus adopt-a-trail and adopt-a-highway programs for regular monitoring and maintenance of trails and roads,
• Nature Center Staffing on Sundays and some Saturdays, April through November,
• Nestboxes for kestrels, including four new boxes this year, but no kestrels yet,
• Nest cameras for songbirds at the nature center,
• Native plantings at the park office and benches along trails in the park,
• Public recreation and nature programs done jointly with the park staff (hikes, plant walks, fly fishing instruction),
• Historical research toward future publications about the park area,
• Financial and volunteer support for park programs and promoting the park and the Friends to the general public.

We also worked to sustain our organization and its ability to support the park, including:

• Raising funds by selling water ice at summer concerts and wood crafts and note cards at the park office,
• Continuing to grow our membership (currently 446 members),
• Maintaining a strong financial position, as summarized in the financial statement below, and
• Communicating regularly with our members and the general public through our website, www.WhiteClayFriends.org, newsletters, and membership meetings.

We thank all our members and especially our leaders and other volunteers for making these activities possible.

2008 Statement of Financial Activity and 2009 Budget

Audit Report - During February 2009 we, the audit committee appointed by the President, reviewed the financial records of the Friends of White Clay Creek State Park. We determined that the above statement fairly represents the financial activities and net assets of the organization for the year ended December 31, 2008. All financial records are open for review by members at any time upon request. Ella de Courcelle (Chair), Frank Rawling, John Thomas.