Good to Know: How a Volunteer Saved Some Shoreline

By Desiree Parker Sunday, January 24, 2010

Williamsburg resident Ann Jurczyk needed a volunteer project to finish up her Volunteers as Chesapeake Stewards (VoiCeS) class.

On Wednesday afternoon, she got a chance to see the fruits of her labor as she stood in wet sand and mud, watching a yellow backhoe loader move boulders in the James River.

Jurczyk had never really had the time to volunteer before, because her job required lots of travel and the rest of her time was spent with family. Now that she’s shifted to a consulting business, she had the chance to look into what opportunities were out there.

“I read about the VoiCeS program, and thought I’d try it,” she says.

VoiCeS is an adult education program designed to give folks a deeper understanding of the Bay and the effort underway to restore it. Begun in 2004, the program is offered all along the western and eastern shores of Maryland and Virginia.

Jurczyk learned all kinds of things in the class she’d never even heard of before. “I never knew baby oysters were called spat,” she says, “or that rockfish are making a comeback in the James River. I learned so much, and lots about what you can do as an individual to protect the bay.” One thing she did was find a new lawn company for her home when she learned of the unsafe fertilizing practices her old company used. “One person can really make a difference just by changing little things,” she says.

As part of the program, Jurczyk had to do a 40-hour volunteer project. When Walter Priest of NOAA came to the class and gave a talk about living shorelines, she was inspired enough to approach him about doing a project on the topic.

He told her about a project at Jamestown 4-H campground that had begun, but stalled due to lack of funds: Part of the shoreline along the James River was severely eroded, and the erosion was killing trees and eating up property at a rapid rate.

The traditional method of stopping erosion is to build a strong, flat wall to save what’s left of the shore, but these perpendicular walls do nothing to encourage aquatic life or help the health of the waterway. A living shoreline, like the one over at Yorktown Beach, uses rocks to reduce the impact of waves and stabilize the shoreline while creating a habitat for water critters. This is what Priest and others envisioned for the eroding area of the 4-H center beach.

“I had a background in land horticulture and in English, and I thought this project would be a good fit for me,” says Jurczyk. She also worked in marketing for a large software company, so she knew her way around technical jargon, and she also knew how to sell her idea – an important element in the competitive grant writing arena where groups scramble to get a piece of dwindling funding.

All that she had to work with was a sketch of what the project would look like when it was done and the engineering plans. So, she taught herself some architectural drawing software and created high-quality blueprints of the project, along with the other requirements for the grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust.

She figures it took her about 200 hours or more to do, but in the end the $92,500 grant was approved.

Wednesday afternoon Jurczyk and all the folks involved in the project gathered to see how things were progressing – and they look pretty good, I’d say. There is a long swath of rocks to stop the waves, and a huge pile of sand that will be spread between the rocks and the eroded shoreline to serve as an anchor for some aquatic grasses that will be planted in the spring – a task that Jurczyk says the group will need some volunteers for (in case you’re looking for a project to do).

This project will take care of a few hundred feet of shoreline and protect some of the trees already falling into the water, but she’ll be working on getting funds to continue the project further down the shore.

“It’s tough work, because this is all new to me – but it’s interesting,” says Jurczyk as she looks out at the row of rocks.

See? Anytime is a good time to start volunteering. You never know what new interests you might uncover.

More things going on…
Big Brothers Big Sisters and the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program are having a joint fundraiser on March 13 called “Dancing With the Williamsburg Stars.” Paired with professional dancers representing some of areas most recognized dance studios, the Williamsburg Stars are polishing their skills to compete in front of a live audience and a panel of judges.

“All of us at the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program and Big Brothers Big Sisters are grateful to the stars for their willingness to give up time from their incredibly busy schedules to take dance lessons and participate in this exciting event,” said Joan Peterson, Executive Director of the Rita Welsh Adult Literacy Program.

The dancers are:
Anne Conner (Amy’s Dance Studio, Newport News), president of Towne Bank, Williamsburg; Brien Craft (7 Cities Ballroom, Williamsburg), general manager of the Wal-Mart Direct Imports Distribution Center; Charles Crone (Amy’s Dance Studio), retired vice president for the Williamsburg Pottery Factory; Emmett Harmon (7 Cities Ballroom), chief of police for James City County; Janna Hymes, music director of the Williamsburg Symphonia and the Maine Pro Musica; Gary Massie (Amy’s Dance Studio), president of Jack L. Massie Contractor Inc. (JLMCI) in Williamsburg; Virginia “Ginny” McLaughlin (7 Cities Ballroom), dean of the School of Education at the College of William & Mary; Vittorio “Victor” Minichiello (Country Bootleggers, Yorktown), owner and chef of Sal’s by Victor Restaurant; Liz Montgomery (7 Cities Ballroom), visitor services supervisor at Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation and vocalist; Stephen J. Shonka (Amy’s Dance Studio),financial planner and owner of Family Retirement Planning and Wealth Management in Williamsburg; and Marshall Warner (Country Bootleggers), executive vice president of Chesapeake Bank.

Judging the Dancing with the Williamsburg Stars are Taylor Reveley, president of the College of William and Mary; John Moorman, head of the Williamsburg Regional Library; and Rebecca Rushforth, a dane professor at the College of William and Mary. The mistress of ceremonies is Cathy Lewis, host and executive producer of Hear/Say with Cathy Lewis and What Matters on public radio and television.