Meet Our Community: Charmon Ashby
- Paige Combs - KCCB
- 24 minutes ago
- 3 min read
As part of our seasonal spotlight series, we’re celebrating our incredible employees, partners, and volunteers who help make the work of Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful (KCCB) possible. In our Earth Day Blog, we talk about the ‘Ripple Effect’ and how it only takes one person to inspire many to make a change in their community. Today we’re excited to introduce Charmon, who encourages discovery, connection, and preservation with her work along Coyote Creek.
Role: BioBlitz & Cleanup Volunteer
With KCCB: For Over 7 Years…
Fun Facts 🌟
Happy place: Eastern Sierra, Yosemite, Henry Coe 🏞️
Unusual creek sightings: Insects 🦋
Favorite hobbies: Dancing 💃
Favorite place to eat: Japan town, Asian food 😋
Favorite color: Turquoise 🌈
When Charmon was asked about her happy place, she said, “I love the eastern Sierra, and it’s not one particular park… There are so many places to choose from.”
How It All Started 🌱
Charmon started coming to BioBlitz events with KCCB about 7 years ago, right before the pandemic. At the time, she was interested in photography and seeing the variety of people and families that would attend these events.
Charmon stated, “People of all ages participate. People with different backgrounds. Some people are very knowledgeable naturalists. Some people are very proficient with a camera. And other people are just learning. And it’s a kind of wonderful mix of people when you go to these events.”
She said her first event was when they were looking for an oak gall at Alum Rock Park. This is a park that she had been hiking in for years. When she went on this BioBlitz, she said, “I’d been in this park since I was a kid, and I hadn’t noticed a lot of things that were being shown or shared with us. That inspired me a lot.”
As a retired teacher, she said she especially loves working with children and being outdoors with them. For her, it’s an opportunity to be around their energy and enthusiasm. It’s also an opportunity to help kids fall in love with nature.
Impact on the Community 🌎
Charmon understands the importance of discovering hidden parts of nature and developing an appreciation for our environment. She also has a passion for preservation and supporting youth to become stewards of the environment.
She said, “I see people doing outreach… they invite other children or other families, and I’ve seen a lot of that kind of connection. That’s where we need to start. If kids fall in love with nature, then nature is going to thrive.”
She mastered something special during her time with KCCB: the understanding that connection is a pathway to protecting nature. This realization indicated to her that every organization actively working on something for the planet is interconnected.
Looking Ahead: The Future of KCCB ☀️🌳
For Charmon, it’s more than volunteer work in the environment; it’s a reminder that we are all working towards a similar goal and making a difference. When we all come together, we can accomplish so much.
Charmon expressed, “I was just impressed with the huge network of organizations that have similar goals and how I’ve been involved in several of them. It’s eye-opening that it’s this huge network of wonderful activities and learning and contributions to our beautiful environment here.”
Final Thoughts ✨
If someone is interested in volunteering or getting involved, Charmon expressed that there are plenty of ways to get involved and find something that fits things you enjoy. Beyond cleanups and BioBlitzes, protecting trails and open space is becoming the priority in Santa Clara County as well.
Charmon said, “I think it’s just so life-affirming to be outdoors in a place that’s nature. And to be around other people who are like-minded as well.”