MRC Renames Coastal Volunteer Award for Jan Holmes
Every year, hundreds of volunteers contribute thousands of hours of service, science and outreach in support of Island County's marine environment. They do so as members of various organizations and, in some cases, as citizens unaffiliated with any group. in 2009, the MRC and WSU Beach Watchers partnered to establish an award to recognize this contribution of volunteer service and leadership. They created the annual Island County Coastal Volunteer of the Year Award, open to any citizen of Island County regardless of affiliation.
To identify the winner, a joint committee of the MRC and WSU Beach Watchers review nominations submitted by the 
public. One individual is chosen and the award is presented in February before an audience of some 600 people attending the annual Sound Waters University.
No one better embodied the spirit of such service in Island County than Jan Holmes, a long-time WSU Beach Watcher and early member of the MRC. Her death in December of 2011 was a great loss to members, friends and volunteers in both organizations. In recognition of her leadership, the MRC voted unanimously in January 2012 to rename the award in her honor, The Jan Holmes Island County Coastal Volunteer of the Year.
Holmes and her husband, Steve, moved to Whidbey Island after completing careers in the airline industry. In 1990, Holmes received training as a WSU Beach Watcher. She found such joy and wonder in the nearshore environment that she went back to school at Western Washington University and obtained a degree in marine science. She became a leader in the Beach Watcher organization, inspiring fellow volunteers, adults and children with her infectious enthusiasm as a teacher and mentor.
As a scientist Holmes set high standards, developing rigorous protocols for the Beach Watchers intertidal monitoring program and later creating an innovative eelgrass research project that has revolutionized the gathering of eelgrass data by citizen volunteers at a fraction of the traditional cost. She collaborated closely with the MRC while attracting talented volunteers to the project.
In 2010, Holmes was honored for her community service with the prestigious Cox Conserves Heroes Award for Western Washington, in competition with volunteers from other areas of the state. The award is given by KIRO TV and The Trust for Public Land.
Sammye Kempbell - 2011 Jan Holmes Coastal Volunteer
Sammye Kempbell of Coupeville is the 2011 Jan Holmes Island County Coastal Volunteer of the Year. She became a 
WSU Beach Watcher in 2003 and has logged more than 4,000 hours of volunteer time making 41,000 contacts with members of the public, providing beach naturalist interpretive services to school children and speaking about the shoreline at summer festivals, conferences and directly with tourists.
A tragic irony of the shoreline is how easily well-meaning people can wreak destruction unknowingly if not guided in their explorations. At Rosario Beach in Deception Pass State Park, a small pocket of rocky tidepools constitutes an extraordinary nearshore treasure. Low tides expose fragile sea life to the threat of devastating damage from thousands of visitors. On one particularly tragic day, just a single visit to this beach by busloads of school children resulted in severe damage.
Kempbell made it her mission to solve this problem by educating the beach-going public, investing thousands of hours in meeting tour groups and other visitors, welcoming them and explaining the fragility of the shoreline. In 2011, she collaborated with state park staff, the Deception Pass Park Foundation, WSU Island County Beach Watchers and Lighthouse Environmental Programs to launch a formal beach naturalist program. She recruited and trained volunteers, sought funding and organized partnerships with other organizations. The program in 2011 developed a team of 24 trained naturalists who provided interpretive services at 104 low tides at Rosario during the heavily-visited summer months.
Barbara Brock - 2010 Coastal Volunteer of the Year
Barbara Brock of Camano Island is our 2010 Island County Coastal Volunteer of the Year. She is pictured at Iverson Spit Reserve, where she had just finished installing an MRC interpretive sign with a work party of volunteers from Friends of Camano Island Parks. Carol Triplett snapped the photo.
The selection committee chose Barbara Brock for her extensive volunteer service as a WSU Beach Watcher and for her work with other local groups engaged in environmental stewardship. She is a member of the Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) and has served on the Salmon Technical Advisory Committee, a WRAC subcommittee.
Brock was a member of the first class of WSU Beach Watchers trained on Camano Island in 2002 and helped develop the Shore Stewards program that later expanded to Whidbey Island and throughout Puget Sound. She headed the volunteer team carrying out juvenile salmon seining research on Camano Island duing the period of active seining studies there and currently does some salmon recovery work on Kristoferson Creek, where she also keeps an eye on the beavers. She helped develop the county's Camano Island Non-Point Pollution Plan and currently sits on the Shore Stewards Advisory Committee and on the board of Friends of Camano Island Parks.
The MRC collaborated closely with Brock in developing the text and graphics for several shoreline interpretive signs we have installed at English Boom County Park, Iverson Spit Reserve, Camano Island State Park and Cama Beach State Park.