2021 Annual Report
The year 2021 has been referred to as The Nature Foundation at Wintergreen’s hybrid year as most board and committee meetings have been held virtually. The innovative capacity of Zoom enabled us to accomplish many things that may not have been possible even in a normal year.
Some of these were:
- Interacting with teachers and large numbers of students virtually by making scientists and lecturers available that they would not have gotten to hear otherwise.
- Opening our Shoppe to on line orders to be mailed or picked up.
- Accomplishing great attendance at virtual Science Advisory/Education meetings as those scientist/educators did not have to travel.
- Opening our building while noting state wide recommendations on health safety.
- Continuing to lead outdoor activity where participants could mask up or socially distance themselves.
- Offering an order/pick up at our greenhouse that proved wildly successful as gardening and outdoor landscaping projects became evermore popular.
Our hiking trail system saw a significant traffic increase as owners and guests sought peace and solitude on Wintergreens 35 miles of hiking trail.
Staff was busier than ever with the necessary changes that made us successful throughout the year and our funding efforts met with great success as our members recognised the need for support.
Our Endowment Campaign successfully met the Smyth one-million-dollar match challenge, yielding a great start that put us almost halfway to our goals associated with Endowment 2025. We were able to show our appreciation to Mary Beth Smyth who then passed at the end of July.