Susan Anderson, Earth Team volunteer-Big Rapids

For over 30 years Susan Anderson helped provide lunches for low-income students at Michigan schools. Today, as an Earth Team volunteer, she is helping the people who grow that food.
Mrs. Anderson has served as an Earth Team volunteer in the Big Rapids field office since the spring of 2004. The year before, she retired from the Michigan Department of Education as the state administrator for the USDA’s child nutrition program. She sees the relationship between her career with the state and her volunteer work.

“I’m seeing the full spectrum,” said Mrs. Anderson.

She became a volunteer through her involvement with the Michigan State University Extension Master Gardener Program. The Mecosta Conservation District sought Master Gardeners to volunteer with their tree and plant sales, said Mrs. Anderson.

Susan Anderson

She has gone on to perform a variety of office tasks for the Conservation District and the Mecosta County NRCS field office. During 2006 and 2007 she logged over 800 hours as an Earth Team volunteer, said District Conservationist Jennifer Taylor.

When becoming a volunteer, Mrs. Anderson was looking for interesting, rewarding work. Of all her volunteer activities, she enjoys working in the Conservation District and NRCS office the most. The two organizations help people solve a lot of problems, she said.

“I think it really makes a difference to the community and its rewarding to be a part of that,” Mrs. Anderson said.
Her office tasks have included answering telephones, taking orders for the Conservation District’s tree and native plant sales, scanning slides of aerial photographs, promoting the household hazardous waste cleanup and teaching at Ag and Natural Resources Days to name a few. She enjoys the variety of works she is able to do as a volunteer.

Having Mrs. Anderson in the office frees up a lot of her time for other tasks, said Ms. Taylor. Her service is greatly appreciated by the NRCS and Conservation District staff.

Mrs. Anderson has even carried her conservation work to her other hobby, gardening. She is a member of the Big Rapids Garden Club which installed a rain garden adjacent to the Muskegon River. The city is developing a river walk and found an erosion problem in the area, she said. The club maintains the rain garden as well as other public gardens in the city.