YES! is welcoming a new member to our staff – Katelyn Larsen is the newest YES! Coordinator. We are excited for Katelyn to share her knowledge and enthusiasm with the YES! Program as a Coordinator for the Southern MN teams while working out of Ney Nature Center in Henderson!
Here is what Katelyn has to say:
I am extremely overjoyed and grateful to join YES! as a coordinator for the southern region of Minnesota. I’ll be working out of Ney Nature Center in Henderson. Every day I continue to learn about the environment we live in and how we can live more sustainably, and I am excited for the opportunity to work with the teams in the southern region of Minnesota to achieve greater sustainability in their schools and help them become better environmental stewards.
People with waste reduction ties in Minnesota might remember me as the “milk dispenser girl” for my work with the New London-Spicer YES! team, Jeffers Foundation, and Silver King to bring milk dispensers back to public schools during my year as a Minnesota GreenCorps member. While the project was extremely successful, I am looking forward to working on more diverse projects. However, if more schools are able to switch back to bulk milk dispensers as a result of me working as a YES! coordinator, that would be a huge bonus.
When I wasn’t learning about the environment as a Minnesota GreenCorps member or graduate student at Bemidji State University, I was working my way toward becoming a crazy cat lady, beginning with the adoption of my little furry girl Jasmine. She has weaseled her way into my life, effectively turning me from a dog-person to a cat-person (I still love dogs, but don’t tell her that!). While I would love to house every stray dog and cat, I am satisfied just having Jasmine as my sidekick…for now.
My other passions include photography, crocheting, and thrifting. I much prefer being on the shooting side of a camera rather than in its limelight, which is probably why it took me a great while to find a photo worthy of accompanying this blog post. I also operate a small crocheting business on the side called Greetings from Yesteryear. I’ve dabbled mostly with hats and baby slippers, but I’ve recently bridged to making earwarmers and shawls. Thrifting became a recent hobby of mine, and I’m sure it will only grow with time. One of my latest thrift store projects involved turning an old suitcase into a cat bed (one of the many ideas I received from Pinterest).
I look forward to meeting everyone involved in YES! this year and seeing how we can grow this program together. As I finish with this blog post, I am eagerly awaiting my journey with YES! and am excited to see the amazing things that will happen in the coming months!
To contact Katelyn and welcome her to the YES! program, email her at [email protected]!
