Sandee Blanchard and Dan Smith

The river runs through them

Featured volunteers — July 2008

by Tim Boyle

It is said that at birth, humans are made up of nearly 78% water. Then, as we age, the percentage of water in our bodies declines. Thats the theory for normal people, anyway.

For volunteers Sandee Blanchard and Dan Smith, no one knows. Their interaction with water seems not to be on the scale of most normal humans.

Besides sharing interests in scuba diving, swimming and their dream of changing their address to a marina (to live on a boat in a Saint Paul marina), this couple volunteered together for the entire span of last years Mississippi River Challenge, and are about to do so again. They say they find themselves at the river pretty much every weekend.

Dan admits that the river is a big part of him but also feels a need to get to the ocean now and again, which seems only natural when you think about it.

Sandee likens the river to the beginning of a path, maybe to warmer water she adds with a grin.

Of course, no human is 100% water, and so it is with Sandee and Dan. Along with volunteering start-to-finish at last years Challenge, the couple has also pitched in at such land-based events as the Crosby Park restoration. Sandee has helped with garlic mustard-pulling and was also a member of the Tuesday night office crew for a spell.

We just do the events we enjoy, she says. I spent considerable time trying different local volunteer groups and FMR was just a more comfortable fit. I was schooled in environmental studies and don‘t get to apply it much in my current job. The volunteering provides a good balance between my schooling and my career.

Dan on the other hand, is looking for balance of a different sort. Im an ironworker. I love my job. I work up on the girders and have helped build the bridgework on 694 and 35E, he says humbly. I feel like the volunteer work is my chance to give something back.

Theyre being so modest, laughs Volunteer Coordinator sue rich. Sandee and Dan are phenomenal for so many reasons. They help in their community, at Crosby, at broader events like the Challenge and they pitch in at all levels — from digging out invasives, to providing medical support or even making a coffee run. And even when theyre exhausted they just emanate this infectious enthusiasm. For them, its not about specific places or tasks, it really is about the river.

The couple is looking forward to this years Mississippi River Challenge with its added bicycle component, offering to ride along and help with first aid, and theyve also signed up for nearly every event at Crosby Park, not too far along the river from their Saint Paul home. Does this signal a shift away from the water?

Actually, were going to motorcycle up to Ashland, Wisconsin this weekend and look at a live-aboard boat on Lake Superior, they both chime in and laugh.

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