Member profile: Lori Romick

October 2018 – Lori Romick shows people their actions matter when it comes to protecting Long Island Sound by showing them the pollinator garden she rebuilt at the Coastal Center at Milford Point. It was a group effort with her son, husband, and other volunteers. Lori is the environmental enforcement officer for Orange, Connecticut but loves the Coastal Center: “I can’t wait to retire so I can do more work there!”

“The garden is a very comfortable way to interact with people as they’re walking through.

“It’s important to extend our reach. It’s about birds, but it’s the connection with birds and the natural environment and the connection with people.

“The center is not just a place for birders. It’s a place for people to meditate, do yoga, do photography, do painting, for kids to come and learn. For people who are into insects, or trees, plants, Long Island Sound. We reach out to so many different stakeholders and if each one of them makes one small change in the way that they treat our environment, I think we’re doing our job.

“I love the center. I love the people and I love the whole idea. I saw that change in our son how it had him focus and find a path that he became passionate about. I know it works. I know that the education piece works.”

On reaching people through the pollinator garden, and through the center:

“Being at the center and you’re just teaching people. You can teach a little or a lot depending on how much they want to engage with you.

“Volunteering is a way to extend our outreach. Every time I volunteer, I usually learn something at the center from from someone who has a background that’s different than mine or they have a certain expertise.  I hope I also provide them with some tidbits of information that they might find interesting or useful. I thinking making those connections and realizing it’s not just about birds and birders, that we need all the stakeholders to be involved and all the stakeholders to appreciate everybody else’s passion.”