Laurel Bohart and Donna Collins: winners of this year's Jo Ann Green Award

Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Laurel Bohart and Donna Collins were the recipients of this year’s Jo Ann Green Award. 

"We thought they encapsulated what the Joanne Green Award is about. We had a number of nominations, but we considered their’s to be the best because of all the work that they've done for Wild Cortes. They put in a lot of unseen work in the background to make the Wild Cortes exhibit the success it's been, and they're doing that as volunteers," explained Helen Hall, Executive Director of the Friends of Cortes Island (FOCI).

Every year at their AGM, FOCI gives the Jo Ann Green award to a worthy Cortes Island resident in recognition of their contribution to the environmental wellbeing of the community.

Helen Hall: "They are both putting countless hours into displays and staffing of the World Cortes exhibit, the one satellite exhibit of the Cortes Museum and Archives. Laurel is entirely responsible for all the taxidermy mounts in the exhibit and is the sole curator of the Raven’s Relations exhibit.  Donna took over the much needed lead management of the Wild Cortes exhibit after Lynne Jordan moved off island. She offers administrative and creative energy into the new exhibits and the weekly operations of Wild Cortes, and jokes about this space being her home away from home." 

Cortes Currents: What do you think about receiving the Joanne Green Award? 

Donna Collins replied, "It was a real shock, but it was a real feather in our caps for all the work. More so for Laurel, because she's just done so much work. This is her life. All I've done is helped her showcase it a little bit better and get people out to see it.” 

"A big thank you to FOCI for even thinking of us. Helen told me that it was a unanimous decision by the FOCI board that we would be the winners. She said there were other nominees, but it just went straight to us and  that tells me something. It means a lot to us." 
Collins mentioned local biologist Sabina Leader-Mense, whose work is well respected in the wider scientific community.

Donna Collins: "I think Sabina got the honour before and I'm figuring: if we're up there with Sabina, we're doing well."

Cortes Currents: You're also on the board of the Cortes Island Museum.  How did they react to the news that  you and Laurel had been chosen for the Jo Ann Green ward?

Donna Collins: "The board was absolutely blown away. It's just such a big surprise to see Wild Cortes doing really well, it had stumbled along for quite a few years."  

“Wild Cortes is important because of our ability to put out information like:
What's happening with our wildlife? 
How our little island is doing as far as global warming?
And the science behind things.
“So that people can make good decisions about what to do and what not to do." 

Helen Hall: "We hope that people are not only learning about natural history, but also caring more about it and wanting to do something more about it too. So, Laurel and Donna were a really good fit for this award and we were delighted to give it to them." 

Laurel Bohart added, "We have choices to make, and we're trying to show people what the choices are. Maybe that's one reason we got the award." 

"If we can trigger a few people to understand and to start working with, say, putting in gardens instead of lawns, all the basic things we can do to help mitigate the issues we've got.  If everybody does a little bit, and there's a lot of people on this planet, then I think we can turn it around."