When asked to be this year’s Star Prairie Ox Cart Days Grand Marshals, Kim Anderson and Bob Long reacted with disbelief.
“Thank you, but no thank you,” Anderson said to the hometown festival organizers.
Anderson serves as the Riverwood Nature Center Executive Director and Long as the nonprofit’s board chairman – conservation colleagues of sorts.
Instead of her and Long in the role, Anderson insisted the organizers ask three key Village Parks Committee members and Riverwood volunteers to be this year’s Grand Marshalls. The organizers said in response that they already did.
“This project is not about us,” Anderson said, humbly.
Anderson and Long estimate that community members have accumulated over 10,000 hours of volunteer efforts. From cashiering at the River Revival Thrift and ReUse Store, to mowing the prairie grass, to general event help — Riverwood has cultivated a community centric space, they said.
Riverwood, formerly the Utgaard’s family chicken hatchery, consists of 35 acres of land with 3,000 feet of frontage along the Apple River.
Anderson and Long joined forces in 2019 to preserve the landscape. And in January of 2020, the two began their grant applying journey to finance the $1.5 million purchase and future renovation projects.
Throughout the years, the center’s earned $950,000 from U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin’s congressional spending, $250,000 from Royal Credit Union Foundation, $500,000 from the Wisconsin DNR’s Knowles-Nelson grant and more.
When Anderson and Long began their work five years ago, they asked themselves: “What could we do with this property that’d support the community?” And with that question, they answered: by maintaining prairie trails for public walks. Also, they host a community thrift store, and a rentable educational space for organizations to have public presentations or regular meetings.
Anderson and Long also envision a visitor and interpretive center, youth and senior activity center and a greenhouse in the near future.
The pair will continue to move forward with the center and preserve its landscape, Anderson said. They want this to be a spot people can enjoy for generations to come.
Ox Cart Days attendees can meet Anderson and Long along with learn more about Riverwood Nature Center during the Grand Parade at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 18.
(1) comment
Congrats Kim and Bob!! You are conservation heros! Your efforts will make a difference for years and years to come. I encourage everyone to donate stuff to their store rather to goodwill which sees fit to pay their CEo several million dollars a year.
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