Volunteer Spotlight

CSEG Earth Science for Society (ESfS)

Earth Science for Society (ESfS) is a FREE geoscience outreach exhibition that aims to “inspire an understanding of Earth Science”. This year, 11 schools attended with approximately 1500 students. Hundreds of members of the public also attended the exhibition. On the Sunday, 300 children, from non-school groups like the Girl Guides, received guided tours of the event. For the first time, I attended with my whole family and am personally thankful for the effort put in by everyone involved. The ESfS committee “believes that increased science literacy is essential for the students of today as they are the decision-makers of tomorrow and the future caretakers of the Earth”. If this resonates with you, get involved for 2017 by volunteering, exhibiting, sponsorship or attending with friends and family. Visit esfscanada.com to see how.

François Aubin, Max Eidsvik, Meaghan Wright, Rebecca Haspel, Brodie Sutherland, Doug Hackbarth, David Germscheid, Helen Isaac, Annette Milbradt and Aliya Kairzhanova form the 2016 steering committee that works with 100+ volunteers to ensure the success of the program. We meet François, Helen and David below.

François Aubin (General Chair) first volunteered for the CSEG in 1996 working on signage for the CSEG Annual Convention. Since then, he has taken on leadership roles with the Ski Spree, Lunch Box Geophysics, CSEG Executive (as Director of Member Services and President) and most recently with ESfS. He sees ESfS as an outstanding way to involve the public in some aspects of Earth Science and accepted the role of General Chair after he volunteered for ESfS in 2015 and saw the impact on junior high kids attending. There have been challenges such as APEGA pulling support with little notice and consequently the CSEG Foundation stepped up as the parent organisation for 2016.

François recently read Dark Winter by John Casey, which he found to be excellent reading during the Paris Climate Change talks, so stop François when you see him next and have a chat about that, his recent cruises on the Rhein and to Panama, or the latest ESfS news. If you’d like to be involved with ESfS, come forward – a highlight for François has been discovering that ESfS has
an outstanding team of volunteers.

Helen Isaac (Program Delivery Co-Chair) has donated significant time to the CSEG including serving on the Executive as Second Vice President and the first Director of Educational Services, Outreach Committee (Chair for 6 years), Recorder Committee, GeoConvention and most recently with the CSEG Foundation and ESfS. On the ESfS Committee, Helen has helped primarily with Program Delivery organising schools and buses, teacher resources, scavenger booklet and goodie bags, although for 2016 she has handed much of that work on to David Germscheid. That said, because she is a big kid at heart, Helen is still coordinating the scavenger booklet. ESfS evolved from the Kids in Science Program (KISP) that brought senior high school students to the Convention exhibit floor but Helen is concerned about future evolution of the program due to decreased sponsorship and exhibitor staffing. To help ESfS evolve, you can volunteer and, more importantly, provide sponsorship.

On Sundays Helen would like to be cross-country skiing or hiking and on Wednesday she rehearses with the Calgary Philharmonic Chorus, so catch her in between and say thank you for all the volunteer hours that she and others have put into ESfS. Although volunteering is fun and rewarding, it requires a lot of work and Helen suggests
only volunteer if you can carry through with your commitments.

David Germscheid (Program Delivery Co-Chair) has cycled 6000 km per year for the past 12 years to get to work and has still had energy to volunteer for ESfS, and its predecessor KISP, for 10 of those years. He has enjoyed seeing the three-day event grow noting that it is almost fully subscribed by junior high classes within 6 days of the bookings being open. He finds it rewarding to know that the teachers value the event so much that they get the applications in immediately and as Program Delivery Co-chair he is working to get the word out to other schools and youth clubs. Last year, David participated in ESfS as an attendee along with his family and as an exhibit volunteer. In the past, David has been a KISP and ESfS guide so it is no surprise that he recommends new volunteers also
be an ESfS guide – as it is a great introduction to volunteering.