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From the Executive Director...
by Zoe Kersteen-Tucker

It is with pleasure that I open this issue of Green Footnotes in my new role as the Executive Director of the Committee for Green Foothills and the Green Foothills Foundation. Little less than a year ago, our Boards of Directors set forth a challenge to raise two years of salary for our first-ever Executive Director — and here I am!

A wonderful challenge gift of $30,000 from noted King's Mountain historian Kenneth Fisher launched our Executive Director Leadership Fund; this gift was quickly matched by renowned attorney and coastal protection advocate Joseph Cotchett. Many more members and friends have given generously to this fund during the last year with the understanding that their gifts help guarantee the long-term health of this vibrant organization. Indeed, your marvelous generosity also inspired our board to name Kathy Switky as the new Director of Education and Outreach. We are very fortunate to add such a talented and accomplished individual to our staff.

As Executive Director, I am eager to continue the work I began as Committee Board President two years ago. We will blaze new trails and follow in the footsteps of the wise ones who charted the first paths to local open space preservation. With your help, the Committee's banner staff and Board of Directors will strive to make this organization sustainable, nimble and effective for the decades to come.

As you know, the Committee is rooted in a venerable tradition of standing up and fighting for what we believe in — open space and natural resource conservation. With the organizational changes made in the last year, the Committee and Green Foothills Foundation are now prepared to get tougher and to fight even harder to protect the last remaining open space on the Peninsula.

At the Committee's 25th anniversary celebration, founder Wallace Stegner wrote, "...if you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are. Identity depends not on some intransigent independence and separateness, but upon membership in something — a community, region, tradition, place. You should take great pride in what you have done; and you should brace yourself to do more. The opportunity will not vanish, or the threats (to the environment) disappear. A place is not a place until people have lived their way deeply into it and it exists in their minds and memories and emotions as surely as it does on the map. And one of the best ways to get that feeling for a place is to fight for it."

My goal as Executive Director is to work with you, our staff and our Boards of Directors to ensure that this community — this collection of folks affectionately known as the "Green Feet" — continues to exist in our minds and memories. We will work, fight and stand strong together so that this region continues to offer a small corner of paradise to those lucky enough to call this place home. If Peninsula open space was not uniquely worth saving, the Committee for Green Foothills would not have lasted in our hearts and souls for the last 40 years.

Your support continues to strengthen our ability to act on behalf of our local environment. I invite you to take great pride in the Committee's accomplishments — you put us on the map!

Published August 2001 in Green Footnotes.
Page last updated August 8, 2001.


	News Subscribe to Our Newsletter Sign up for Email Updates CGF In the News Press Inquiries Past Articles Calendar			From the Executive Director... by Zoe Kersteen-Tucker It is with pleasure that I open this issue of Green Footnotes in my new role as the Executive Director of the Committee for Green Foothills and the Green Foothills Foundation. Little less than a year ago, our Boards of Directors set forth a challenge to raise two years of salary for our first-ever Executive Director — and here I am! A wonderful challenge gift of $30,000 from noted King's Mountain historian Kenneth Fisher launched our Executive Director Leadership Fund; this gift was quickly matched by renowned attorney and coastal protection advocate Joseph Cotchett. Many more members and friends have given generously to this fund during the last year with the understanding that their gifts help guarantee the long-term health of this vibrant organization. Indeed, your marvelous generosity also inspired our board to name Kathy Switky as the new Director of Education and Outreach. We are very fortunate to add such a talented and accomplished individual to our staff. As Executive Director, I am eager to continue the work I began as Committee Board President two years ago. We will blaze new trails and follow in the footsteps of the wise ones who charted the first paths to local open space preservation. With your help, the Committee's banner staff and Board of Directors will strive to make this organization sustainable, nimble and effective for the decades to come. As you know, the Committee is rooted in a venerable tradition of standing up and fighting for what we believe in — open space and natural resource conservation. With the organizational changes made in the last year, the Committee and Green Foothills Foundation are now prepared to get tougher and to fight even harder to protect the last remaining open space on the Peninsula. At the Committee's 25th anniversary celebration, founder Wallace Stegner wrote, "...if you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are. Identity depends not on some intransigent independence and separateness, but upon membership in something — a community, region, tradition, place. You should take great pride in what you have done; and you should brace yourself to do more. The opportunity will not vanish, or the threats (to the environment) disappear. A place is not a place until people have lived their way deeply into it and it exists in their minds and memories and emotions as surely as it does on the map. And one of the best ways to get that feeling for a place is to fight for it." My goal as Executive Director is to work with you, our staff and our Boards of Directors to ensure that this community — this collection of folks affectionately known as the "Green Feet" — continues to exist in our minds and memories. We will work, fight and stand strong together so that this region continues to offer a small corner of paradise to those lucky enough to call this place home. If Peninsula open space was not uniquely worth saving, the Committee for Green Foothills would not have lasted in our hearts and souls for the last 40 years. Your support continues to strengthen our ability to act on behalf of our local environment. I invite you to take great pride in the Committee's accomplishments — you put us on the map! Published August 2001 in Green Footnotes. Page last updated August 8, 2001.