At Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, we have a staff full of unique and one-of-a-kind individuals who help fulfill our mission to support the environment and inspire others to get on the trails!
Jim Kolar, Education Assistant, is a prime example of the dedication of our staff. From his career in manufacturing to volunteering at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute, his love for nature, and especially snakes, helped propel him to become a dedicated and crucial staff member.
How did your path lead you to PCCI?
Most of my working career was in the quality assurance aspect of manufacturing in the automotive, medical, and military fields. That doesn’t allow a lot of time for wandering around in swamps, fields, and forests, so a few years before I retired in 2015, knowing that is what I like to do, I started taking classes involving Field Botany, ornithology, foraging, and conservation. One of the requirements of the conservation class required me to pick a “Capstone” project to work on over the course of the class, or even beyond. I chose to work with the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (EMR) and was encouraged to go and meet folks at the Pierce Cedar Creek Institute who were involved with research on that snake. I came here, met WONDERFUL people and fell in love with this place. I started volunteering here, and after about a year, an opening came up in the stewardship department, which I applied for and was blessed to get. Still today, after nearly 9 years since taking that conservation class, I get to assist with EMR surveys, look for other snakes and herps and was even blessed to take a recent venomous snake handling class right here at PCCI!!
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I am so blessed to have a job which often entails doing just the kind of things that I really like doing anyway, that there isn’t much difference between “inside” and “outside” of work. But, when I do have the time, I like to visit family, I have 3 sisters and a brother with plenty of nieces and nephews. I used to have a second brother that often beat me up a good bit when I was young, yet I still miss him dearly now. I also enjoy camping, fishing, gardening, foraging , looking for herps, and riding my mountain bike. But, again, as I mentioned, there never seems to be enough time for all of it.
What’s a quote or life lesson you live by?
Like lots of other folks, it is the “Golden Rule”. If everyone lived by it, there would be no hatred in this world.
What’s something you love about your role at PCCI?
Hands down, I get the most joy out of sharing what I learn! Whether it is a new wild plant to eat, how to tell that a fly that looks like a bee is actually a fly and not a bee, or even a good joke. Perhaps I should have been a teacher, but I never liked being around unruly kids very much. (Maybe that’s because I was one myself).
What’s a dream project or passion you’d love to explore here?
Amongst other things, PCCI is an Environmental Education center. I believe that instruction indoors is great (wonderful, actually, when it’s really crappy outdoors), but I also believe that some things stick with a person more when they learn it outside. Maybe it is the wind, the light, the smells, etc., I am not sure, but I would love to be a part of a team that plans and maybe even helps construct a pavilion for outdoor education and other programs here. I might add that we get some pretty severe wind around here and it has cost us a few tents in the past. A pavilion might also put an end to that problem.
What does your ideal work environment look like?
Though a nice work setting, which PCCI truly is, has some importance, I think that good communications and brutal honesty are tops in a good work environment. “Brutal” might seem like a strange adjective to connect with honesty, but what I mean is that you or your fellow workers should not be afraid to tell you honestly how they feel about any course of action. In that environment, much can be accomplished.
What do you value in a teammate or work partnership?
I think trust is one of the most important traits for a working partnership. If you can trust that your fellow workers have your best interest in mind as well as their own, there won’t be much of anything that can’t be worked through.
What animal best represents you and why?
For those of you who know me well enough, you might think I would say that a snake is most like me, but in fact I am not sure that I have would say that. Maybe it’s a chipmunk, or a black capped chick-a-dee. I love how those little critters can so easily be coaxed into human hands. They show near absolute trust when they overcome their initial fear of you. With just a few sunflower seeds on my bald head, I have had chipmunks jump onto my head and a chick-a-dee land on my eye glass frames while still on my face.
We couldn’t be luckier to have Jim on staff here at PCCI and to watch firsthand as he inspires the next generation to love our environment and snakes, too, just as much as he does.
See you on the trails,
The Pierce Cedar Creek Institute Team