Want to help?
Volunteers are essential to the success of the Southwest Environmental Center. Whether it is writing letters to the editor, stuffing envelopes, or attending agency meetings, we could not do our work without them.
Upcoming volunteer opportunities
- Volunteer Training Day: Learn how to get involved with our conservation work, whether you have an hour a month or 10 hours a week to contribute. Meet other like-minded folks and have some fun! Our next training session is Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 from 6:00 to 8:30 PM at the SWEC office.
- Raft the Rio event committee: Raft the Rio (RTR) is our annual event in which we encourage people to build rafts out of recycled materials and float them down a 3-mile stretch of the river. This event is designed to inspire a connection to the river and all that it has to offer to everyone in the southwest. We will begin planning for this event in early February.
- On the River, For the River event committee: (OTR) is our annual fundraising gala which includes dinner, drinks, dancing and a silent auction. This committee takes a lot of hard work but is worth it in the end. We are expecting to raise over $35K this year. This committee will begin to meet in early February as well.
- Back by Noon representative: Every Spring and Fall, SWEC hosts a natural history outing series in which we have guided tours on various subjects out and about around Las Cruces and El Paso. We are looking for volunteers to represent SWEC on these outings (along with the guide) and help with the tour. The guide does the teaching, the volunteer helps with questions about membership, SWEC itself and makes sure no one gets hurt. We will be training volunteers for this position (there will be several outings, so more than one volunteer would be great) in early February.
- Data-entry: We have a backlog of canvassing data entry that we need help compiling into our new database. This task can be done anytime M-F from 9 am - 6 pm (our normal hours of operation).
Meet our volunteers: Elisa Cundiff
Elisa spent her childhood running amuck in the wild beauty surrounding Las Cruces; jogging Baylor Pass with her father, riding horses through the desert with mom, and scrambling rocks in Hueco Tanks and the Rough N Readies with her brother, Charlie Cundiff. She is always thrilled to volunteer for Southwest Environmental Center events and activities, not only because she supports the center's extraordinary conservation efforts, but because she enjoys the camaraderie of the spirited individuals that the center attracts. In October 2008, she helped to launch Thrive (www.justthrive.com), a free, online personal financial advisory service which was bought out by LendingTree.com in February of 2009. She continues to work for Thrive and LendingTree remotely, along with Energy Concepts, a local residential solar and wind company. Currently, she is working with Matyas Danter, developing a commerce website to link local farms and businesses here in Las Cruces. She is also the least talented musician in a very good band called "Fire in the Flower". They frequently play at High Desert Brewery and the Vintage Wine Bar.
