DDWS elects new board members, officers
At its recent annual meeting at The Community House on Sanibel, the “Ding” Darling Wildlife Society-Friends of the Refuge’s board of directors welcomed two residents as new members: Nancy Felker and Stuart R. Sergeant.
It also re-elected members Sarah Ashton, Barb Bluedorn, David Jeffrey and Dick Levinson. The board later elected its officers: Sarah Ashton as president, Wendy Kindig as vice president, Robin Kirk as secretary, and Bill Valerian as treasurer.
A practicing pharmacist for 34 years for family pharmacies in Illinois and later in Arkansas, Felker retired in 2017. She has been visiting Sanibel since age 4, when she developed an early love for birds and nature. With her husband, Felker has owned property on Sanibel since 2014 and still lives part-time in northwest Arkansas. She began volunteering at the Refuge Nature Store pre-COVID and was then training to become a rover of Wildlife Drive.
“I will soon be volunteering again at the nature store,” Felker said. “I enjoy talking to the visitors about what they saw in the refuge and where they have traveled from. I believe the motto ‘The more you know, the more you love, the more you want to protect.’ The wildlife society does such an excellent job of encouraging education.”
Sergeant works as a litigation attorney for Swanson, Martin & Bell in Chicago, Illinois, and owns On Island on Sanibel with his wife. He volunteers for the Sanibel-Captiva Kiwanis Club and formerly as an Island Youth sports coach.
“I love the outdoors and spending free time fishing, hunting and mountain biking with my family,” Sergeant said. “I am excited to be a part of an organization that plays a key role in keeping Sanibel as we all know it: the perfect place to live and visit.”
“We welcome Nancy and Stuart into the fold, confident that they will bring their passion for nature and energy for volunteering to help move the board into a new year of continued admirable support for the refuge,” Ashton said.