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Homer Wilderness Leaders make a comeback

Susannah Webster

DirtBag Clean-up week is well under way and kids ages eight to 18 have an opportunity to help clean up the Homer area. Homer Wilderness Leaders or HoWL, an educational environmental nonprofit, puts on the event. The organization is especially excited for this week because it kicks off a season of wilderness expeditions and outdoor activity offerings for area youth.

For the past year, HoWL offered no programming besides DirtBag week. The last executive director died unexpectedly in 2016 and that left the organization in a tight spot. Susannah Webster sits on HoWL’s board.

“At the end of the summer in 2016, HOWL was basically out of money and didn't have any employees and board members who were ready to step down from the board,” she said.

At the end of that year, Webster joined the board.

“We decided to have a year of dormancy,” she said. “We needed to sort of regroup and raise money and come up with a strategic plan to move forward which we did and then we hired our new executive director in December.”

Current Executive Director Mike Sturm has been busy with outreach in the schools and getting kids involved. The board also secured grants and community members helped with donations.

Webster said she was nervous about having a gap in programming, especially with the Peer Leader Program. It’s an opportunity for older teens to take on responsibilities within the organization as well as help lead expeditions.

“I mean it’s one thing to have grownups leading expeditions,” she said. “But it's another thing to have these older teenagers who you know the 10, 11, 12 year olds really look up to and really connect with—to  have them also. So for me, one of my big concerns was having a year gap that we were going to lose those kids and that we were going to have to start from scratch basically.

But she said she’s been pleasantly surprised by the continued interest from teenagers. She adds that the nonprofit is now able to pick up where it left off.

We also have more opportunities to do community service and give back and then every Friday we do day trips—so stand-up paddle boarding or rock climbing or canoeing as well as the overnight expeditions that we have,” she said.

But Webster said the first priority is to collect a big mountain of garbage. The clean-up week ends on Saturday,­ and HoWL is hosting a celebration that night.

Renee joined KBBI in 2017 as a general assignment reporter and host. Her work has appeared on such shows as Weekend Edition Saturday, The World, Marketplace and Studio 360. Renee previously interned as a reporter for KPCC in Los Angeles and as a producer for Stateside at Michigan Radio. Her work has earned her numerous press club awards. She holds an M.S. in journalism from the University of Southern California and a B.A. in women's studies from the University of Michigan.