Chesapeake Bay Foundation Class offered at ESCC

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation (CBF) is accepting applications for its Eastern Shore adult education course, VoiCeS (Volunteers as Chesapeake
Stewards), which runs from Sept. 22 to Nov. 17.

CBF created the VoiCeS program in 2004 as a way to reach out to local volunteers and their communities and create a deeper understanding of the Bay and the efforts to restore it. This professionally-taught, two-part program, meet weekly for eight weeks and includes field trips and participant-led community projects. Participants learn about the Bay’s biology, its problems and issues, and how volunteers and their communities can help Bay restoration.

VoiCeS not only connects participants with the Bay, but it also gives volunteers a greater understanding of their own watersheds. The program is divided into two parts:
•an eight-week course of study, with one three-hour class each week, and
•a service requirement on a Bay-related project or projects of 40 hours over the next nine months.

Successful graduates receive CBF’s designation as Chesapeake Stewards.

The course of evening classes will focus on water quality and stewardship, and feature in-depth sessions taught by bay experts from CBF and other regional institutions and organizations.Classes will meet Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8:30 at Eastern Shore Community College. Course topics will include local and baywide restoration efforts; Chesapeake Bay history, culture and ecology; current and upcoming legislation; citizen action and advocacy;
fisheries updates; and agriculture and the watershed.
A bay-related field trip is included in the course, as is discussion of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay Clean Water Blueprint aimed at restoring creeks, rivers, and the bay.
Following the class work, participants will be asked to perform a minimum 40 hours of bay-related volunteer service. Graduates receive CBF’s designation as a Chesapeake Steward
A $30 fee per individual ($50 per couple) will cover the costs of materials and field trips.
Registration is available online at https://www.cbf.org/events/voices/va-eastern-shore-registration, or call Tatum Ford at 757-971-0366, or e-mail tford@cbf.org

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Wayne Creed

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