Volunteer Profile: From Fruit Trees to Movie Night

Whether you find Cassandra working at sea on a fish observation trip, climbing ladders to pick the sweetest pear, or organizing Lettuce Link’s Marra Farm Movie Night, she is sure to have you giggling and learning something new.

Cassandra Donovan has volunteered with Lettuce Link since she moved to Seattle in 2005. As a new resident looking for ways to connect to the community, she saw a flier seeking volunteers for the Community Fruit Tree Harvest and signed up. Each year since then, from July to October, she volunteers as a harvest leader— twisting and picking fruit from the trees. The fruit harvest supports community needs by “using something that would otherwise be wasted to feed and help people. Not to mention, it is fun!” Cassandra explains.

"Volunteering for Lettuce Link helps people, provides food, and fun!

“Volunteering makes you step outside yourself and you receive the benefit of helping people, learning new things, gaining extra work experience, making direct impact, and eating free food.”

Before she started volunteering with Lettuce Link, Cassandra had no experience picking fruit, farming or harvesting food. Now she continues to learn about food – both its cultivation and disparities in food access.

In 2011, working with the Friends of Lettuce Link group, Cassandra spearheaded the Marra Farm Movie Night fundraiser. She had been taking classes in project management and wanted to get some additional experience, and Marra Farm Movie Night proved to be the perfect project. Thanks to her leadership, the event brought close to 100 guests to the farm and netted $1,000! She proved to have hidden talent as an emcee and even created a how-to guide for next year’s movie night planning team. It is because of volunteers like Cassandra that Lettuce Link is able to truly "foster community connections through gardening education, sustainable food production, and raising awareness about good nutrition and food justice.”

Thank you Cassandra and all our Lettuce Link Volunteers for making the harvest so bountiful!

Thanks to our intern, Blair, for this profile of Cassandra. Blair will graduate from Seattle Pacific University next month and then head north to work at the Wrangell Mountains Center in Alaska. We wish her the best!