My term as president of the Orange County chapter is coming to a close, and at our December meeting we will elect a new president to take office for 2011-12. I have so much to be grateful for as I look back on the last (almost) three years. The board members who have served during my term deserve a lot of credit and thanks. They are a very talented group with an unusual flexibility and willingness to try new ideas. Sarah Jayne, Brad Jenkins, Jennifer Mabley, Joan Hampton, Nancy Heuler, Celia Kutcher, Rich Schilk, Dan Songster and Gene Ratcliffe – thank you from me and from all the members of the chapter.
I’d also like to take the time and this space to thank a few other people who have been a great support to me. First, my bosses, Mike Evans and Jeff Bohn at Tree of Life Nursery, who have been extremely supportive of me and of the chapter. Their support of CNPS dates to well before I became personally involved. I want to sincerely thank them for their wholehearted encouragement, which has been so important to me in the last fifteen years that I have had the pleasure to work with them.
My husband, Bob Camp, who drives me to meetings all over California, puts up with all my time at meetings and events on evenings and weekends and my time huddled over my computer the rest of the week, hikes all over Orange County and the west with me, and is generally a crucial support and source of ideas in every interest I choose to pursue.
My co-workers, Pat Hornig, Patty Roess, Junior Rodriguez, Ramiro Rodriguez, Debbie Evans, Pat Slator, and all the crew at Tree of Life who help out with CNPS whenever they can, and who share their great ideas. A special thank you to Gene Ratcliffe who sits next to me every day, is a great sounding board, and who has said “yes” every time I’ve asked her to lend her considerable knowledge and talents to CNPS, especially as a teacher.
Finally, I want to thank all of you who are active participants in our meetings and events. Some of you have been committee chairs and handled important jobs for the chapter, and some of you have been the smiling faces at garden tours and plant sales and seminars. I’d love to name you all here, but the list would just be too long. I have gotten a chance to know and work with many of you, and look forward to strengthening those relationships in the future. We have a great core of talented people in this county who care about native plants, and together we can keep the pendulum swinging towards the right way to landscape, and towards more protection and understanding of our precious wildlands.
—Laura Camp
