Join us at REI in Seattle on Monday, January 26

I've been busy this week working on a presentation to be given by our Acting Superintendent, Randy King, at the REI Flagship Store in Seattle on the evening of Monday, January 26. The presentation is sponsored by the Student Conservation Association and will tell the story of our extraordinary volunteer flood recovery effort at Mount Rainier over the past two years, a story that many of you have been intimately involved with.

Randy will present an update on conditions in the park, SCA President Dale Penny will talk about their partnership with the National Park Service, and I will answer questions about the future of our volunteer program and opportunities for the public to get involved. But the central part of the program will be the story of the Mount Rainier Recovery Initiative: 1800 people per year working in partnership with the National Park Service, the Student Conservation Association, the Washington Trails Association, and the National Parks Conservation Association to rebuild trails, campgrounds, and other facilities damaged by the floods of November 2006. Along the way, we've built a partnership with the public that is enduring and that will support our efforts to protect Mount Rainier and serve its visitors for generations.

Here's the official program announcement from SCA:

Putting Paradise Back Together
Get up close and personal with the devastation wrought by the floods and storms of 2006 and hear about the back-breaking work it took to put our Mountain back together again. Join Mount Rainier National Park acting Superintendent Randy King and Jay Satz, SCA's VP for Western Initiatives, in a presentation and discussion about how 3,254 volunteers contributed 154,168 hours of service to help rebuild the roads, trails, historic structures and campsites that Mother Nature devoured.

When: Monday, January 26, 7:00-8:30 p.m.
Where: REI Flagship Store, 222 Yale Ave N. Seattle, WA 98109

For more info, please email Kristin at kmitchell@thesca.org or call 206-324-4649.