Late in 2013, Larry Scheer walked into my office and told me he recently retired, and he was looking for things to do. He was interested in being outside and spending time in the river. These kinds of inquiries come to HRWC often. A person like Larry shows up rarely.
Larry has contributed his time and talents to HRWC for ten years running, logging well over 1,000 volunteer hours. He shows up for all of our standing monitoring programs—working on and then helping lead our Chemistry and Flow Monitoring Program, River Roundups and Stonefly Searches. He helped us test run a suite of projects including stream bank (erosion) assessments, road stream crossing inventories, Creek Walking, River Ambassadors program, and our 50th anniversary oral history project. Larry also supports HRWC as an active participant in our membership program, even connecting us with Thrivent Choice, a holistic financial services organization driven by a higher purpose for donations. Larry’s curiosity and attention to details helps improve our programs, and his infectious enthusiasm for watershed protections brings others to the table through volunteer events and Thrivent.
But we promised Larry this article wouldn’t be about him. HRWC deeply values each volunteer, whether they come for just one event or if they return, like Larry, again and again. We rely on stalwart volunteers who stick with their favorite program, and we celebrate the ways a single volunteer experience may impact families and young professionals going forward.
In closing, we want to express our gratitude to Larry for his years of dedicated service to the watershed. We can’t wait to see what Larry accomplishes in the next ten years, along with those of you he continues to inspire.
—Jason Frenzel
This blog post is also published in the Huron River Report, Fall 2024.
