<quick note: The donate buttons now go to a dedicated Manastash Internships page!!!>
I’m shifting gears. Rather than fundraising for some small CWU things, the new goal is to fund an internship at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (or National Zoo, Air and Space, etc) – dedicated to a CWU science student. One per year. 10 weeks during the summer.
We will continue to have dinners at the Red Pickle. 2025/2026 dinners will be Tuesdays September 30, February 3, and May 26: 5:00 – 7:00. They’ve offered to donate a percentage of that night’s profits. Thanks, Mario and Ale!
This will be an epic opportunity for a CWU student (can you imagine the resume boost?) and will help support the Smithsonian.
The bummer is that these cost $8000 ($7k for the student stipend, $1k for travel). All the raised funds go to the student! This means upping my fundraising game.
The good thing is that the Smithsonian has an entire internship office (they have over 1000 fully funded interns per year) – they will handle accepting funds, managing applications, helping find a place to live, professional development, social stuff, etc etc.
Honestly, I want to do one….
Some details… still somewhat TBD.
First, applications will be due through the Smithsonian’s website: https://smithsonianassociates.org/ticketing/internships/ Note the requirements and deadline (15 Feb). I’ll get word out to campus in January.
Once the deadline has passed, I will receive the applications and put together a small committee: me representing the earth sciences, Holly representing the life sciences, Carin Thomas representing chemistry, and one person from the Smithsonian. Andy Piacsek (physics) will serve as an alternate if needed. We’ll pick a winner and turn things back over to the Smithsonian.
The winner will need to come back to Ellensburg and give a public presentation about their experience at our fall dinner. The presentation will be open to pretty much anyone – and will be streamed via zoom to donors who can’t make it in person.
Only students majoring in geology, biology, environmental studies, chemistry, and physics will be eligible (gotta do something to make this manageable). See this video about Smithsonian Internships.
The Smithsonian nixxed calling the winner a “Krakentern” (after my dog) – we settled on the Manastash Intern. Which is close, because Kraken is the Hound of the Manastash (her favorite place to hike). Thus, all advertising pics include Kraken at the ridge.
Keep in mind that you don’t have to join us for dinner to donate, you can push the donate button at will! 🙂
Progress toward $8000
- After first dinner (October): $4465
- After first round of email requests (October): $2700 (total to date $7165)
- After second dinner (February):
- After second round of emails (February):
- After third dinner (April):
Donation levels
Gold ($1000 or more)
- Anonymous former student!
- Anonymous CWU faculty
Silver ($500 -$999)
- Bob Hickey
- Holly Pinkart
- Anonymous old friends
- Kate and Bob Hickey
- Old friends from ID
Bronze ($250-$499)
- Kathy Hey and Marty Miller
- Andy Piacsek and Lisa Ely
- Alfaro Concept Restaurants (Red Pickle and The Ridge)
- Tim and Rachel Tasse
- Kay Tuttle
- Piotr and Maria Jankowski
Side note, fall 2025 starts year three of my fundraising dinners. In the first two years, we raised $7915 for the CWU Wildcat Food Pantry, Friends of the Brooks Library, the DHC emergency assistance fund, the CWU Cap and Gown fund, the Kittitas Audubon Society scholarship fund, and the CWU Men of Color Affinity Group.
