Katie Clayton

Featured volunteer — March 2007

by Tim Boyle

Just when you think you have Katie Clayton all nice and stereotyped, she comes in with the left hook.

One minute youre in a deep conversation about pro football; the next, shes telling you she graduated with a Masters in Soils from the University of Minnesota.

She loves to be outside. She enjoys getting her hands, feet and face dirty working in a plant nursery. Now, you might think she started with FMR by swinging a Pulaski (a double-bladed axe-hoe combo) at every rain-soaked, mosquito-infested restoration event within 40 miles. But, no, for two and half years Katie has been a regular fixture of FMRs Tuesday Night volunteer office work crew; one of those noble, unsung heroes doing the extra office jobs, putting together mailings, editing the database, and sorting the returned mail and truly loving it.

Sometimes it is just really quiet and introspective working there, says Katie, and at others when there is a special project going on it can be loud and boisterous. This dichotomy suits her well.

Nevertheless, it is time for Katie to leave FMR and her job at the plant nursery. Soon, she will be that effervescent person kindly making small talk while sitting at the airport; the one with very little baggage. At first youll think shes waiting for her mothers flight to arrive from Vermont, until she casually mentions how shes about to leave for two years to work for the Peace Corps in Morocco.

Katie says she knows little about exactly where she will be going or what she will be doing, but she knows she will be getting hands-on experience doing environmental education and resource management. Beyond polishing her French and learning Berber, the local dialect, she knows little about what exactly what her Moroccan years will entail, but she looks forward to the change and the chance to apply herself.

FMR office manager Connie Lanphear said Katie has always been a fun and calm presence who got right to work. On her first volunteer night, the heat in a previous office malfunctioned on a very cold evening, but Katie didnt miss a beat. She learned quickly and in just a few Tuesday nights she became the go-to person for database questions.

It looks like Katie has all the skills necessary to start her Peace Corps term in a foreign country: adaptability yet constancy, compassion for the environment and open-mindedness about what she can accomplish with available resources. Her seeming contradictions belie great versatility, and much strength.

Tim Boyle is a freelance writer and photographer and fellow FMR volunteer, and can be reached via e-mail.