Welcome to Being Where You Are. This page came about after my time at Green Mountain College, pursuing a Master’s degree in Environmental Studies. My thesis project for that program was to write a book telling the stories of environmental volunteers. It began as an internship with a local conservation organization, during which I interviewed their volunteers and wrote press releases about some amazing local environmental heroes. Inspired by their stories, I decided to expand on that project and write a book about volunteers from many organizations in the area. I reached out to as many environmental nonprofits as I could and ended up interviewing around sixty volunteers. Those interviews became the book, which I have been working on publishing. While that process continues, I decided to start this blog, to keep the focus on these amazing, everyday people who put in their time, effort, energy, passion and dedication for our planet. They ask nothing in return other than the chance to do some good work for their local environment, for the nature that is nearby. When all that work at the local level is taken together, it goes a long way toward helping the larger, connected environment of our entire world. I hope you’ll enjoy reading these stories about the impacts volunteers have on their local communities and our planet as a whole. Feel free to comment and post your own stories or links to stories you are familiar with. And thank you for visiting.