Volunteer of the Year!

In this season of gratitude and reflection, we'd like to take a moment to introduce someone special who has been quietly contributing to the Mountain Valleys team:

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Hi everyone! 

My name is Xavier Wells, and I’m the Bonner Intern here at Mountain Valleys. I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share a bit about my experience over the past few months. 

First off, I’m a junior at Mars Hill University majoring in ecology and conservation biology, with a minor in community nonprofit leadership. I’m originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota, where I grew up playing lacrosse and spending most of my time outdoors. In my free time, I enjoy fishing, hiking, and training for lacrosse. I came to Mars Hill through lacrosse recruitment and later became a Bonner Scholar after seeing the impact I could have within the Madison County community. 

During the past 4 months I have been working with Mountain Valleys on a variety of different projects. Some of my favorites were planting a riparian buffer on Blannahasset Island and helping with hurricane recovery in residential areas of Marshall. Through all the work I have done this semester, I have seen and experienced new parts of Madison County and interacted with many good people. The opportunity to intern with Mountain Valleys not only broadened my horizons of service but also showed me the resilience of Western North Carolina as a community. 

Overall, I am grateful for the continued opportunity to explore North Carolina through serving with Mountain Valleys and am looking forward to learning more about serving our ecosystems and communities through nonprofit work! 

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Thank you to the Mars Hill University Center for Community Engagement's Bonner Scholar Program, and to Xavier for his hard work in our community!