2Heeldrive - Walk it off Wimp!

Story by;
Susan Schell
of the Gateway
Published: 12:01PM May 13th, 2009

Washington’s National Park Fund welcomed Gig Harbor resident Linda Glein to its board of directors last month.

Glein was elected to the board due to her long and diverse leadership background with non-profit organizations like BetterInvesting-Puget Sound Chapter, the Gig Harbor Branch of American Association of University Women, the Minerva Scholarship Foundation, Tacoma Women’s Sailing Association, Toastmasters and the Peninsula Writer’s Association.

Glein describes the National Park Fund as the state’s official fund-raising arm for the national parks.

“They have a wish list of things they can’t afford to do unless people fundraise,” she said. “The fund raises money to do things in all three parks. Though the board tends to meet in Seattle, they try to get people from all around the state. They wanted more South Sound representation.”

When her husband retired, Glein said they both became involved with many things.

“I thought, ‘We really should think about what our passion is,’ and the national parks just sort of popped up as No. 1 on my list,” she said.

Glein heard about the National Parks Fund several years earlier, but she was deterred because its office was in Seattle. At Christmas time last year, she discovered it was rebuilding its board, and that it had an office in Fircrest.

Glein offered to volunteer when Executive Director Eleanor Kittelson asked if she wanted to be on the board.

“They want to get geographical representation on the board that appeals to different populations,” Glein said. “They were looking for people that have an emotional attachment to the parks. All of the board members are passionate about this.”

Glein moved to Washington from Nebraska when she was 8. While her parents immediately embraced the Pacific Northwest, the homesick child did not.

But that soon changed.

“I hated it,” Glein said. “My grandma and grandpa were still back there, and all my friends. My parents never looked back — they loved it. They just loaded up the car when my dad got a job with Boeing.

“I’ve never seen it written in history, but I know there must have been a Boeing migration. Everyone’s dads worked for Boeing.”

Glein warmed up to the area when her parents took her camping and hiking in the national parks. That’s when she fell in love with Mount Rainier.

“It’s the first place we went, and there was so much incredible beauty,” she said. “The alpine meadows are so accessible. That’s the place I go most often. I go on day hikes there all the time.”

Glein, who said her favorite is the Skyline at Panorama Point, laughed when she recalled calling Mount Rainier “my mountain.”

“I think everyone calls it ‘my mountain,’ ” she said.

She has hiked and camped in all three national parks in the region, and she said each has its own charm.

“Olympic National Park has such incredible diversity,” Glein said. “We went to various places, and there you’ve got the oceans and the rainforest. It’s an incredibly large wilderness area.

“The Cascades have a lot of unexplored wilderness area,” she added. “I went camping with my mom there as an adult.”

The national parks are a treasure the Gleins pride themselves in when visitors are in the state. One particularly tough customer was a young man from Munich who shunned the parks during his visit because he wanted to do other things.

“He thought he knew everything about mountains because he lived near Bavaria,” Glein said. “Finally, the day before he left, we put him in the car and drove him to Mount Rainier. He just kept saying, ‘I am so sorry.’ He was so apologetic. He said, ‘I thought I knew mountains. I had no idea what I almost missed.’ ”

National Park Fund

For more information on Washington’s National Park Fund, visit www.wnpf.org.