Guardian Circle Spotlight: Mary Ellen Geist
Kenzie Boesen, Membership & Communications Coordinator
Mary Ellen Geist, Fund Development & Outreach Chair
As the year comes to a close, we take time to reflect on the meaningful work protecting Walloon Lake and its surrounding watershed. This work that ensures this treasured place remains as vibrant for future generations as it is today. Every trail we walk, every clear reflection on the water, and every bird call in the trees is here because of people who choose to give back. The generosity of our members and donors fuels this ongoing story of preservation and connection.
This season, we sat down with longtime Wallooner, devoted supporter, WLAC Trustee and now Chair of the Fund Development and Outreach Committee, Mary Ellen Geist to hear how her family’s deep history with the lake has inspired a lifelong commitment to protecting it and why she believes giving to WLAC is one of the most meaningful ways to keep Walloon thriving for years to come.
What brought you and your family to Walloon Lake? More than seven decades ago, a good friend of my grandparents offered them the opportunity to spend a few weeks at her cottage built in 1895 in Wildwood Harbor. No plumbing – just a water pump out back – and a green outhouse with a half-moon above the door. It had electricity, but no phone and no heat except for a Ben Franklin stove. They fell in love with the tiny cabin and with the pure clean water – no algae, no reeds, and a sandy shore perfect for swimming; a view of the sunsets from the porch; and the woods filled with ancient cedars and hemlock. My grandfather spent many hours in his old town canoe paddling and fishing. My grandmother hiked in the woods identifying trees, ferns and mushrooms. They came back again the next summer, and – I only learned this recently – my Grandfather’s best friend Dr. Bob Bartlett, who had a place a few doors down the beach, actually bought the cottage for my Grandfather for $3,000! Since then, our family has spent every summer on the lake. I am forever grateful to the Bartlett family for giving us the gift of Walloon.
How did you hear about Walloon Lake Association & Conservancy? My Grandmother, Lydia King Frehse, was a botanist who wrote a nature column for the Birmingham Eccentric Newspaper. My Grandfather, Robert M. Frehse, was a minister and nature lover (and a great birdwatcher!) who created Camp Westminster on Higgins Lake. He believed that immersion in the natural world – knowing the names of the trees, plants, birds and mushrooms – teaches humans that there is so much that is greater than we are and makes clear the place we belong in the universe. When he brought kids to Camp Westminster in Northern Michigan from Detroit, he said he could see the change in each child created by communing with nature, and said it was a gift they took with them for the rest of their lives. Walloon is a similar gift for my whole family – a healing place, a touchstone that centers us and makes us feel so alive. My Grandparents supported WLAC when they arrived at Walloon. Appreciating and contributing to the survival of Walloon Lake is in our DNA. My father, Woody Geist, my mother Rosemary Frehse Geist, an artist and art teacher, who illustrated my grandmother’s nature columns and books, always gave to WLAC, and after our Grandparents were gone, carried on traditions from Camp Westminster at our Walloon cottage. We still have my Grandparents’ nature table in the foyer where we keep treasures we find in the woods. Our family believes donating to WLAC will help preserve Walloon Lake, and I believe our family will do this all our lives and carry on this tradition to our children and grandchildren.
What made you decide to give your first gift to the organization? In high school, college and in my early 20’s, my sisters and I left it up to our parents and grandparents to be members and do the yeoman’s work of donating, membership, volunteering and helping WLAC in many ways. But I don’t think I realized the power of the organization until 1998 when my mother became involved in helping to buy 133 acres that became available along Wildwood Harbor Road to create WLAC’s Wildwood Preserve. We had hiked there often and visited a tiny lake we called Mud Lake (now named Evangeline Lake). My family and I participated in fundraising, and my parents joined the 80 friends and neighbors who made the purchase of this land through WLAC possible. I began paying more attention to what WLAC was doing, and I began to understand its mission. Years later, a vacant stretch of land our cottage looks out on across the lake – we called it Mead Springs – was threatened by a proposed development. Major portions of it were slated to be logged and paved over by the state. This forest meant the world to us: hemlocks hundreds of years old; two pairs of bald eagles as well as pileated woodpeckers nested there. We kayaked, paddle boarded and canoed along its shores on a daily basis. WLAC alerted residents. Our neighbors in Wildwood Harbor as well as many people on the lake and within the Walloon Watershed got involved in trying to keep it from being developed. Our family wrote letters and made phone calls. And eventually WLAC and the efforts of many neighbors and friends stopped this development and urged the state to create the Mackinac State Forest. Involvement in these campaigns made me realize the need for all Wallooners to step up to be part of WLAC. Being a member of WLAC means so much to me. We need to carry the torch and continue the work to preserve the lake for future generations.
In your opinion, what is the most important work the organization does? Of course, preserving this beautiful lake and the land and streams that surround it is paramount. Purchasing whatever land is available to protect our lake by keeping rivers and streams that flow into it clean and pure is possibly one of the most important things we do. Water testing and keeping invasive species at bay is just as crucial. But there is something incalculable WLAC does that is just as significant: bringing people together who love the lake so they can bond over its unique qualities, which helps create a pact to care for the lake forever.
What do you hope the organization will achieve in the near future? This lake is so precious to so many of us. I can’t understand why everyone who has a cottage on Walloon Lake, or has a business nearby with ties to Walloon, or if you simply come to Walloon to hang out on a Saturday afternoon, or hike or bike along some of WLAC’s trails – in other words, anyone who has a stake in Walloon and its watershed – doesn’t become a member of WLAC. I enjoy belonging to this organization and I am proud to now be a Trustee of WLAC. I wish we could somehow help Walloon Lake families make membership become a rite of passage for kids when they turn 18! Or maybe when you graduate from college? A wedding present? I think a WLAC membership would be a great gift for parents and grandparents to give to their kids. It’s an investment in the future of this beautiful lake. So, ultimately, that’s what I would hope WLAC would achieve: more members. More people who own cottages on the lake becoming involved in our work, and people who don’t live on the lake but who love it, and all the people who live in the Walloon watershed becoming WLAC members.
If you were talking to someone else about giving to the Walloon Lake Association & Conservancy, what would you tell them? First: that your gift – no matter how much you give – goes to a great cause. We steward more than 2,300 acres, including 54 preserves and 20 conservation easements. We do water testing, we educate people about ways to protect the water and the watershed, and we offer water safety lessons, too. And we buy important land in the watershed that will keep Walloon safe for decades to come. You never have to worry that the funds will be used for anything but ways to protect this incredible place. A membership is a great way to begin participating with WLAC, as well as giving to the Guardian Fund, our annual fundraising appeal which pays for our essential expenses. You can also give gifts of cash or stocks, matching gifts, charitable distributions, gifts of land, and something we’re working on getting the word out about to more people: the Legacy Society, which involves estate planning and gifts upon your death.
This fall, I participated in WLAC’s annual hike with the brilliant mushroom expert, Walloon resident Teresa Crouse. I was very moved, walking in the lush forests of the Wildwood Harbor Preserve, a woods that WLAC had helped save, and I felt as though she and her husband David, their family, and my family, and all the people supporting WLAC were like one big family, joined in a mutual cause. Events like this, as well as birdwatching hikes, our annual fundraiser Love Walloon, Volunteer Stream Monitoring, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, and many other WLAC activities create a special bond we can share with each other and our families for the rest of our lives.
We’re deeply grateful to Mary Ellen for sharing her heartfelt connection to Walloon Lake and for reminding us what it truly means to protect a place we love. Her story reflects what so many of us feel, Walloon is not just a lake, but a legacy worth protecting.
Every gift, membership, and act of stewardship keeps this legacy alive. Whether you’ve just discovered Walloon’s magic or your family has cherished it for generations, your support helps ensure that the lake and its lands remain vibrant, clean, and full of life for all who follow. Together, we can continue the work that Mary Ellen and so many others have embraced – preserving and protecting Walloon for generations to come.