Volunteer Awards

Our outstanding volunteers, Pam Hill and Lee Willard, were recognized for their valuable contributions to the Habitat Authority this past Saturday, September 16, 2023, at our Meetup monthly public hike. Also recognized but not present was volunteer Tom Merlino.

Our volunteers’ time is precious in helping the Authority maintain its trails, host Meetup.com, and process the wildlife camera digital photos. Our recognized volunteers contributed many precious hours to protecting our trails and hillsides this past fiscal year.

Pam Hill  Pam Hill is a Whittier resident and teaches geology at California State University, Long Beach, but still finds the time to hike and trail watch in the Preserve. She has been a docent volunteer since 2015 and was unofficially reporting her observations to us on her many hikes in the hills until completing her Trail Watch training in 2017.  Pam was previously recognized for her outstanding volunteer services in 2016, 2018 and 2021. This past fiscal year she put in the most volunteer hours overall by logging 86.18 hours primarily as a Trail Watch volunteer.  We don’t know how she does it, but we very much appreciate it!

Lee Willard Lee Willard lives in Whittier and first began volunteering for the Habitat Authority in 2011 as a docent.  The following year he completed Trail Watch training and has since spent countless hours hiking the trails and reporting back to rangers.  Lee loves our hills and has long been active with Hills for Everyone, Friends of the Whittier Hills and Sierra Club.  In 2012 and 2018, Lee was awarded our Trail Watch Volunteer of the Year.  This past year he donated 60.50  precious hours in helping the rangers keep the Preserve trails safe and clean.  He is an asset to our Trail Watch program and we greatly appreciate his service!

Tom Merlino Tom Merlino, a resident of Whittier, joined the Authority’s volunteer team in 2019 and received our Overall Volunteer of the Year recognition that same year. He went onto receive an appreciation award in 2020, as well. Tom has continued that good work this year, dedicating over 48 hours towards processing the images collected by the wildlife study’s trail cameras. The ecologist has come to rely on his steadfast devotion to processing images, thus making him an asset to the wildlife camera study team.  Tom has also stepped up to be the administrator for the Habitat Authority’s Meetup.com monthly public hikes, which has greatly helped the staff.  He volunteered 71.75 hours overall.

Thank you, Pam, Lee, and Tom!