Meet the Volunteers Episode 11 – Paige Having Fun and Learning Things!

Written by Mali Valerio and Paige Lettington

I am a 64-year-old who loves learning, being involved with the community, and our Mother Earth. My wife and I decided many years back that when we retired we wanted to live in this area (KVMR and BriarPatch were factors, along with the scenery/location). After 30+ years in Sacramento, we wanted a home where we couldn’t hear the freeway constantly droning. In 2019, we moved to a rural property east of Grass Valley! It’s important to me to be involved in the local community and to be the best possible steward of our 10 acres–to leave it in better condition than we found it.

So when we moved up here, I just started looking for volunteer opportunities (outdoorsy stuff!) and ways to learn about my new home. I got connected with SSI through taking the California Naturalist Class in 2022 (I started in 2020 but COVID put the kibosh on that). Volunteering with SSI seemed like a good way to give back. I worked in the SSI Bug Lab for a few months, but my other volunteer work with my Firewise Community and prescribed fire started taking up a lot more time, so I focused on the stream surveys, since they are more irregular/seasonal. 2025 is my fourth year volunteering on the fall surveys and my first helping in the summer. 

All the creek surveys are memorable in some way. I remember the first time I wore waders was in the pool at Dry Creek (Spenceville area). It was a hot day and it felt nice to go waist deep into the pond in the waders – very cool. My last survey this year (on Halloween) was at the same site, and this time I was chest deep in the cool pool, collecting BMIs.

I really like how we start the creek surveys. Before we step into the water, we recognize the people who lived here before us and set an intention for what we’re doing, why, and how – with respect. I just love the opportunity to be outside doing something worthwhile and getting to see the streams we visit and the surrounding beauty. I have done all the protocols for creek surveys (algae, POM, BMIs, PHAB, and more) and I don’t think there is one particular task I like best. Now that I’ve done all of them a few times, I feel pretty comfortable and enjoy them all.

It’s gratifying to have the time to give back to the community and the environment. I really appreciate working with interesting, fun, and committed people of various ages. I still think of myself as young (though I’m sure some of my fellow volunteers would disagree) but it’s been great getting to know (a little bit) the high school and college students on the stream surveys. I love their dedication and enthusiasm, and hopefully they get something positive out of working with a “senior citizen”. 🙂 And of course the staff are great to work with too. I enjoy our conversations in the car on the way to and from the sites as well as out in the field.

I have always loved nature and the outdoors. As part of a Navy family, I traveled a lot growing up. We moved almost yearly for a while (Hawaii, San Diego, San Pedro, Monterey, Virginia, Rhode Island), often from coast to coast. Family activities were often outdoor adventures, and learning about the places we lived and visited was always a part of it. My dad would always tell us (and still does) “have fun and learn things!”

In our family, we were required to take summer school whenever we weren’t moving, but there were some really memorable ones! When I was 11 I took a fantastic oceanography class in San Pedro, CA that sparked a passion and interest in the watery world. The class included lots of field trips and I remember on one of those we used plankton nets, which are a lot like the BMI nets! After that I wanted to be an oceanographer for a while. I also took a great backpacking summer school class when I was 15, culminating in a trip to Paiute Pass, outside of Bishop in the high Sierra. Over the years I’ve been an avid cyclist, hiker/backpacker, sailor, and canoeist, and continued to learn about the places I lived and visited. 

You might think I would have been a park ranger or some kind of environmental scientist, but it didn’t work out that way. I started at Pomona College (a small liberal arts school) in 1978 with no idea what I was going to do for a career. I had done well in all my classes in high school and had no real idea which direction to go. I started college taking a bit of everything, but was quickly intimidated by the math and science classes (and my fellow students) and ended up majoring in English Literature (reading is another love of mine). My student job led me to a master’s degree and first career in sports medicine (Athletic Trainer). I can still tape an ankle effortlessly after all these years. I continued my travels, living in Tucson, AZ; Colorado Springs; and Walnut Creek, CA before finally settling in Sacramento. After a few years I decided it was time for a change and went to Sac State for another bachelor’s in Environmental Studies. 

At 30, I was looking for some security, so I took every exam and applied for every environment-related State job I qualified for, with no luck. I finally got a student assistant job working on environmental curriculum evaluation and taking lots of science classes at community college to keep that job. That rekindled my interest in science, and I did well in those classes. But when I finally landed my State job, it was as publications coordinator/editor for the Integrated Waste Management Board (now CalRecycle), where I worked for 25 years. That led to website content editing, and a final career in IT at the same department (website and software development). Science adjacent, at least!

All that to say that I’ve always been really interested in science and nature, but my career path took me mostly in other directions, so I have sought out those outdoorsy, sciency things in my post-retirement volunteer work. I’m really glad and grateful that these opportunities exist and that organizations like SSI support citizen science. It feels good to be helping in some small way and to be out and about in our beautiful state. Having fun and learning things!