Congratulations to Marilyn Lodge, dedicated Clean Your Streams volunteer and the recipient of our annual Environmental Stewardship & Involvement award. Ms. Lodge is a quiet, but persistent, force behind the huge volunteer breakfast and many raffle prizes for CYS Day!
Marilyn Lodge started volunteering for the Ottawa River kickoff even before it was held at Monroe Street United Methodist Church, in 2006 (we think). She quickly became invaluable to Marilyn DuFour (sometimes affectionally called the “other” Marilyn) behind-the-scenes for breakfast. She rallied some more help for breakfast and it grew and grew. Within a few years, she got wind of raffle prizes being needed for the CYS picnic and well, those prizes started pouring in. Marilyn DuFour would let us know that there were some little things coming from Marilyn Lodge and sure enough, lots of gift cards, gift baskets, and coupons showed up. After a few years, our staff started looking forward to what would show up and wondered who this persistent lady was (and we appreciated the help as asking for donations is harder than you think!). Kris managed to say “hi and thank you” most years when Marilyn would drop off “leftover” breakfast foods at the picnic but 2023 was the first year that Marilyn Lodge got to see the excitement for the foods & prizes firsthand when she helped distribute those to volunteers.
Marilyn Lodge exemplifies how many people it takes to quietly work behind-the-scenes to pull off a huge program like Clean Your Streams. Often times we don’t even get to thank them directly but this thanks and recognition is long overdue. So if you’ve ever won a prize, had some home-made breads, fancy donuts, or hard-boiled eggs at the Monroe St breakfast or picnic, then thank Marilyn Lodge (if you can ever get her to pause for a minute!).