Our Volunteers

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) volunteers are saving the Bay, one river at a time. Meet a few of the volunteers who are an essential part of CBF's work. With energy and enthusiasm, these activists have demonstrated their commitment in many areas of the watershed — on shorelines, in state legislatures, on farmlands, and in the inner city.

Bruce Kreutzer
During his professional career, Bruce Kreutzer carried the Chesapeake with him across the world. His prized satellite view of the Bay accompanied him during his U.S. Information Service postings in Pakistan and India, where it was always a conversation piece. Now retired and living in Annapolis, Maryland, Bruce has spent thousands of hours in service to the estuary, having begun his volunteer work with CBF in 1995. He was a key figure in a 2005 restoration project on Back Creek in Annapolis, seeing the job to completion despite high tides, drought, and other complications. Bruce has also worked on yellow perch projects with the state fisheries service, and is active in the Coastal Conservancy Association and the Spa Creek Conservancy. 

Patricia Burke
Nurse practitioner Patricia Burke finds an outlet for her inner gardener at CBF’s Clagett Farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, where she volunteers eight to ten hours a week during the growing season. Patricia plants, weeds, hoes, and harvests organic produce at Clagett, where she’s been a regular since 2003. In addition to earning a “work share” of the crop (which all farmhands receive), she’s reaped big dividends in gardening and cooking knowledge that she can apply to her own home. The biggest benefit, she says, is the chance to support clean agriculture that yields healthful, nutritious foods, which she shares with mothers and children at her clinics. Patricia was named Maryland BaySaver of the Year in 2005.

Gwen Lehman
Having lived most of her life in central Pennsylvania, Gwen Lehman appreciates the need to preserve the open space and clean water of her favorite hiking spots. Her work with CBF began with a desire to learn about environmental science. The Harrisburg Area Community College student earned hands-on experience with the Trees for Streams program and absorbed political strategy by attending hearings and agricultural forums at the Pennsylvania State Capitol. She also assists in the CBF Harrisburg office, where she’s gained insight into the ways in which farming impacts the health of the Bay. Her contributions aid the staff’s work in restoration, conservation, and water quality.

Jane Osborne
As a resident of Capitol Hill in Washington, Jane Osborne’s closest link to the natural environment is the Anacostia River. Taking that as her inspiration, she volunteered to develop a CBF program for inner-city children that connects them to their waterway through tree-plantings, field trips, and other outdoor experiences. Jane’s project, the Saturday Environmental Academy, was sponsored by the Religious Partnership for the Anacostia River (which CBF helped to create) and funded by a grant from the EPA, as well as foundations and individual congregations. She spent more than 1,000 hours developing the plan, creating a curriculum, and recruiting seventh and eighth graders for the ten-week sessions, which began in 2005. The Saturday Environmental Academy is not her only endeavor. The twenty-year veteran of the U.S. Public Health Service also contributes her time to a therapeutic riding organization and to St. Mark’s Church on Capitol Hill.

Kurt Rausch
When Kurt Rausch started sailing on the Chesapeake, he began to appreciate the Bay first-hand. An environmental scientist from northern Virginia, he joined CBF to help staff its boat show booth (and gain free admission!), but soon wanted to do more. In addition to volunteering at fairs and festivals, he’s also active in the CBF Speakers Bureau. He finds speaking to Boy Scouts particularly rewarding, because he sees their potential to become the conservationists of the future. Saving the Bay is a family affair for Kurt. His wife, who works for the EPA, and his two children, who are active in scouting, participate with him in CBF-sponsored programs like planting oyster reef balls at CBF’s Discovery Village in Shady Side.

Lois Blaine
Lois Blaine is a water quality professional, and she devotes much of her time to getting the message out through CBF programs. She started working with CBF in the 1980s, has completed Speakers Bureau and VoiCes program training, and is currently a CBF "creekwatcher" who monitors water quality in the Miles, Wye, Tred Avon, and Choptank rivers in Maryland. In her own community, Lois is a steward for preserving wetlands in Hambleton Cove, and serves as chair of the Talbot River Protection Association Outreach and Advocacy workgroup. She loves to take kids out onto the Bay to learn about its natural beauty and resources.

Mike Saylor
Mike Saylor’s restoration work with CBF began with a not-so-simple wish: to pursue a favorite pastime, fly-fishing, in an idyllic setting. With members of his fishing club, the Hagerstown, Maryland physician formed the Beaver Creek Watershed Association, and began to partner with CBF in restoring riparian buffers along the stream. Those efforts expanded into a master plan that became a reality in 2005, when Mike led an ambitious effort that raised funds for, designed, and completed a $269,000 restoration and stabilization project for a 1,700-ft. stretch of the creek. Help from 130 volunteers kept the cost far below a similar project upstream done with public funds. Mike’s contribution is part of an ongoing effort across the greater Antietam watershed to improve water quality. The many-faceted project crosses over the state line, and involves volunteers on the Pennsylvania side like his counterpart, Steve Rettig.

Steve Rettig
The natural beauty and small town atmosphere of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, where Steve Rettig has lived for thirty years, are qualities that he values deeply. When proposed developments threatened to change the area’s character in 2003, Steve rallied neighbors to form the Antietam Watershed Association, which works to preserve and protect the stream in a four-county region. The group partners with CBF on two projects a year, and with its help has earned a $100,000 grant for further action. Steve’s many hours on behalf of the cause — squeezed into his busy schedule as a family practice physician — have solidified popular support for the Association’s objectives. He’s also forged alliances with similar organizations in the Chesapeake region. 

Robert Dawson
Robert “Bub” Dawson made a phone call four years ago, telling CBF to put him to work, and never looked back. He has been actively involved with the annual “Lobby Day” in Virginia, and staffs CBF-sponsored booths at fairs and festivals like the Volvo Ocean Race. He also enjoys showing little children CBF’s interactive “drainpipe” display and explaining what happens when detergents down go the gutter. An amateur pianist, former newspaper editor, and previous director of the nonprofit Action Committee for Rural Electrification, Bub now enjoys golfing, building birdhouses, and teaching journalism part-time in Washington, D.C. when not searching for his next CBF adventure.

Robin Curtis
Robin Curtis loves working outdoors on behalf of CBF. She helps plant underwater grasses and oyster beds at Sarah’s Creek and participates in CBF activities like Virginia’s annual “Lobby Day.” She also enjoys taking children on canoe trips to teach them first-hand the importance of the Bay and why we need to save it. Robin carries CBF’s fight for clean water into other activities as well. She volunteers for a Virginia-based preservation group, Friends of Dragon Run, and mentors science teachers about the importance of water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.

Sue Chapelle
Recently retired as professor of history and public policy at Morgan State University (MSU), Sue Chapelle has spent many hours over the past fifteen winters as a volunteer advocate for CBF, earning CBF’s designation as Maryland Advocate of the Year in 2005. She’s taught MSU student interns and other groups how to lobby effectively with the state legislature, how to follow bills, and how committee hearings work. Her efforts at the Maryland State House have informed her academic activities, too, providing background for courses she’s led and textbooks she’s written. Achieving greater diversity in the environmental movement is one of her ongoing goals. Sue also volunteers at Irvine Nature Center in Baltimore County, and enjoys tennis, gardening, and swimming in her rare leisure moments.

Patricia Kurpiel
The CBF newsletter was all it took to motivate Patricia Kurpiel to help save the Bay, but she was doing that all along. Her activities include tracking the growth of underwater grasses, establishing a water quality-monitoring watchgroup on Accokeek Creek, and even growing bay grasses in her own foyer. Patricia has been active with CBF for more than three years, spreading the “grasses for the masses” message, and helping to fight for dedicated funding for clean water programs. Her commitment is reflected in her roles as the founder of Friends of Stafford Creek, which monitors local waters, and as the head of Save Crow’s Nest, which is dedicated to protecting an important Virginia conservation area. She is currently preparing an herbarium of native water-based plants in and along Accokeek Creek.