written by: Jane Neubauer
This post is a short essay written by long-time volunteer, Jane Neubauer, about her experiences as a Salmon Watcher.
My dad was a florist and had a beautiful store that he and my Grandmother had built in 1948. When I was 5 years old, he taught me, “If you want to be ‘out front’ where there are customers, you have to speak to them.” That was the best customer service and marketing training I’ve ever had. I had a chance later to go to Disney’s Customer Service workshop where I learned about ‘front space’ where customers are and ‘back space’ where Pluto took his head off and lit up a cigarette.
When I worked in hospitals, and customer service was a new topic, it was foreign to so many professionals. But I ‘got it’. Of course, I was chosen to go to the Disney training and to be one of the leaders of the customer service project. It was just so natural to me. When we are walking or sitting at Salmon creeks, we are the ambassadors for Salmon and the Vashon Nature Center.
Today, I talked with 3 different groups of people about Salmon season, life cycles, redds, watersheds, and VNC work with citizen science in King County and other locations around the Salish Sea. Several people said, “Sign me up!” I encouraged them to look at VNC website salmon reports.
I always talk with people when at the creek, but the polaroid salmon glasses in the photos really did the trick. EVERYONE stopped to talk.
Some of you are saying, “But I’m an introvert.” So am I, excepting when I have a purpose. When I’m at Shinglemill Creek, my purpose is to let everybody know what’s happening and recruit them to help us as well as watch carefully for salmon. The glasses help as silly as they are. I’m going to see if I can find some for everyone because I know your fashion aesthetic is longing for them.
Beautiful time to be out there!
Feature photo: Chum salmon, photo credit: Brendan McGarry