Featured Friend - Nancy Estus
Coordinating an I Love My Park Day (ILMPD) event is no small undertaking. It often takes months of planning and countless hours from dedicated volunteers. Nancy Estus is one of those dedicated volunteers and Point au Roche State Park is grateful to have her. In fact, it was during the planning of this year’s ILMPD that Kenneth Showalter, the Park Manager at Point au Roche, mentioned how their ILMPD event wouldn’t be possible without Nancy and the work she and the Friends group does to make ILMPD a huge success. Ken recalled how last year there were dozens upon dozens of volunteers that showed up for ILMPD, and they were all ready and raring to go. “I was amazed. Sure, I knew that I had been emailing back and forth with Nancy for a few months, and that I had been meeting with her committee, making plans, setting goals, preparing lists. What I hadn’t realized was how many others she had reached out to. These people seemed to be so excited, It was like they couldn’t wait to get started.”
Nancy and other members of the Friends of Point au Roche State Park ILMPD Committee coordinated more than 70 volunteers as part of 2017’s ILMPD event. Families, individuals, and serval community groups spruced up the playground and the beach, removed invasive species, and cleared hiking trails on the annual statewide event. The have big plans for this year ILMPD, and have four different projects lined up including planting trees, landscaping around the nature center, cleaning up litter, and removal of invasive species in the Bird Conservation Management Area.
Nancy got involved with the Friends group after joining the Algonquin Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club, and several members of the ADK club were also members of the Point au Roche Friends group. As she learned more about the Friends group and what they were doing for the park, she decided to get involved. Now, after several years of membership she is in her second year on the Board and the ILMPD Planning Committee.
The Friends group helps to protect, preserve and promote the Point au Roche State Park, a 850-acre Wildlife Park along six miles of Lake Champlain shoreline. Nancy says the best thing about the Friends group is their dedication. In 2010, when the park was almost closed due to budget cuts, it was saved by the public support organized by the Friends, the Adirondack Mountain Club and the community.
Point au Roche State Park features many ecological habitats including open meadows, forests, sandy beaches, rocky peninsulas, marshlands, and ponds. The Friends group sponsors programs and activities for the public that interpret the natural environment and social history of the park. “We have sponsored programs on owls, mushrooms and turtles; developed an interpretive trail; and exhibited historical pictures of the park when it was The Fantasy Kingdom theme park” Nancy explained.
Of all the great things the park has to offer visitors, Nancy mentioned that she has been enjoying the wooded area along the paved bike path. “In early May last year I discovered Mourning Cloak butterflies sunning themselves among the leaf litter after their winter hibernation.I think I only noticed them because I was walking slowly. I hope to see them again this year.”
Some of the group's goals for 2018 include, having current and past board members work together in reviewing and understanding some of the more technical aspects of the group's organization, such as their bylaws and memorandum of agreement with OPRHP. They also want to foster their grant writing skills to further enhance their many interpretive programs at the park.
The Friends and the Park are lucky to have an engaged board member like Nancy. Ken surely appreciates all she does for the park especially her involvement with ILMPD. He noted, “She is very well studied. There is no doubt, she has a great passion, not only for Point au Roche State Park; but for the people she has inspired to be part of the great celebration of ILMPD.”