Etcetera

ScrippsAssists Donates $750 to Torrey Pines State Reserve
ScrippsAssists, the employee volunteer group of The Scripps Research Institute, has made a donation of $750 to the Torrey Pines State Reserve—which contains 2,000 acres of land including the chaparral plant community, rare Torrey pine trees, miles of unspoiled beaches, and a lagoon vital to migrating seabirds along the California coastline. The donation was dedicated to purchasing new small hand tools for the reserve's upkeep.

For almost 17 years, every month participants from ScrippsAssists have performed trail maintenance work at the reserve. Starting last year, volunteers began working on the new lagoon restoration project along Carmel Valley Road.

"With the state's budget cutbacks, we noticed significant deterioration of small tools the reserve had for very basic maintenance work," said ScrippsAssists team leader Dee-Hua Huang, who is director of the Scripps Research NMR Facility.

With the $750 donation in hand, last month Huang and California State Park Ranger Kyle Knox went shopping for new tools for the reserve. When learning the purchase was to be made with a donation from ScrippsAssists, managers at Lowe's in Mission Valley generously offered the pair close to a 25 percent discount. The shopping trip resulted in 19 different tools and accessories for a total of 85 new items for the reserve's maintenance and preservation.

ScrippsAssists volunteers normally work with the Torrey Pines State Reserve's park rangers on both the first and second Saturdays of each month. Scripps Research employees and friends are welcome to join other volunteers on either project. For more information about the work at the reserve, contact Huang at x4-2329 or dee@scripps.edu.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

A donation from ScrippsAssists has provided new tools to support trail work by volunteers such as Susan Czertak, Christine Hao, and Jennifer Bray (left to right).