Cindy Ridgeway still can’t quite believe how lucky she is.
Even after four years of participating in the Beach Watchers program, a day of volunteering still leaves her with nothing short of full-tilt enthusiasm.
“I came home and told my husband, ‘This is the best day ever!’” she said.
In part, it’s connections she’s made with children and adults at beaches like Kayak Point, telling them some fact about ocean life, seeing them smile and hearing them say: ‘I didn’t know that.”
“I feel fortunate that I’m allowed to do this,” she said.
When she sees children and adults gathering along the beach she often walks up and asks if they want any help identifying what they’re looking at.
“Then I hold my breath and hope I can figure it out,” she said.
Ridgeway’s husband, Dave Ridgeway, also volunteers for the program.
Cindy Ridgeway joined the program in 2006, a year after federal money was approved to expand it from Island County, where it started, to Snohomish, Skagit, San Juan, Whatcom, Clallam and Jefferson counties.
Volunteers come from diverse backgrounds, including college students, retirees, people making career changes, home-schooled students, and young moms, said Chrys Bertolotto, coordinator of the Beach Watchers program.
The program’s goal is to protect Puget Sound through activities such as water quality sampling, education, seminar planning and recreational crabbing education, she said.
Ridgeway, 69, was a sales manager for Verizon before retiring. She said she was drawn to the Beach Watchers program by her love of being by the water. “It’s my passion,” she said.
She met Bertolotto, and learned about the program, while on a spartina removal project at Warm Beach.
Ridgeway said she feels a special association with Kayak Point because of the hours of volunteer time she’s put in there and because it’s so close to her Warm Beach home.
Dungeness crab, sea stars, sea urchins and mussels are some of the beach creatures she often sees there.
Low tide gives visitors a peek at eelgrass — “an indicator of a very healthy habitat,” she said.
Herring and other small fish use it as a nursery area. It’s an area frequented by crabs, which use it as “some place to hide until they can get bigger,” Ridgeway said.
“We try to educate folks, to let them know this isn’t just green stuff, it has such a vital role.”
She often takes people to look under the pier at Kayak Point to get a glimpse of the mussles, sea urchins and starfish that can be seen.
Sturgeon, which can grow up to five feet long, can also be spotted in Port Susan Bay between Kayak Point and Camano Island, she said.
“Anytime you see that kind of spark in someone’s eyes, where something’s clicking, when you see that spark of passion that you yourself feel, you feel such a connection,” she said.
“It’s just the best.”
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
Cindy Ridgeway
Volunteer: Beach Watchers
How long: Three years
Career: Retired from Verizon
Hometown: Warm Beach
Favorite sea critter: Sunflower starfish
About Beach Watchers:
The program began in Island County as part of the WSU extension programming there. It has since been expanded to seven counties in Western Washington. About 65 people in Snohomish County participate. Volunteers do research, education, restoration and project planning on area beaches. They are asked to donate 100 hours of time over two years.
For more information, go to www.beachwatchers.wsu.edu/skagit-snohomish, call 425-357-6020 or e-mail chrys@wsu.edu.
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