Longtime volunteer leaving Discovery Center




COMMUNITY SERVICE—Anne  Organ  receives  a  bouquet  of thanks for 25 years volunteering with the Discovery Center Science and Technology.  Ellen  Press,  right,  runs  the  Reading Awakens Young Scientists program at the center.

COMMUNITY SERVICE—Anne Organ receives a bouquet of thanks for 25 years volunteering with the Discovery Center Science and Technology. Ellen Press, right, runs the Reading Awakens Young Scientists program at the center.

The three contestants on “Jeopardy!” didn’t know the answer to the question being asked, but Anne Organ, watching the television game show from her Thousand Oaks home, did.

Organ, who turned 91 on Jan. 5, has been a volunteer with The Discovery Center for Science and Technology in Thousand Oaks for 25 years and says her work with the organization has helped give her great insight on life. She’s not surprised when she can answer game show questions that others can’t.

Through the Discovery Center’s Reading Awakens Young Scientists program, Organ has helped students in kindergarten through fourth grade complete a myriad of science-related activities. She’s the founding usher and coordinator of the Discovery Center’s Science Theatre Programs and helps with events that the center hosts for school groups at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. She has never missed a show.

She says her greatest joy is working with children.

“It’s amazing how their little minds work and the questions that they ask,” Organ said. “It’s a learning experience for me, too.”

But Organ will say goodbye to the Discovery Center when she moves to Texas in February to join her daughter, grandson and great-grandchildren who moved there from California. She said she enjoys spending time with her two great-grandchildren, who are ages 3 and 5. “I feel that I should be with them and see them grow.”

Organ said she became a Discovery Center volunteer in support of her son’s wife, Dr. Linda Organ, a founding board member. Linda Organ credited her motherin-law with giving a “200 percent effort” every time she volunteers.

“She enjoys talking about the Discovery Center, and she’s a magnet for recruiting people to our events and to our ranks,” Linda Organ said.

Anne Organ has good things to say about her daughter-in-law as well.

“My daughter-in-law is just an unbelievable genius. Her mind is remarkable. She’s quite a person. I’m very proud of her,” Anne Organ said. “My son is one in a million, too. He calls me every day. I’m just very blessed.”

Organ has lived in Thousand Oaks for 20 years. Originally from Canada, she moved to California in 1939 on a doctor’s recommendation that she live in a warmer climate to help her allergies.

“But he didn’t say California. He said Tucson, Ariz. But in Canada at that time whoever heard of Tucson?” Organ said. cession of molting in male ducks is essential to survival and progeny.

In late summer their drabber eclipse plumage helps them to hide from predators while they are flightless. But because ducks form pair bonds in the winter, they cannot wait until spring, as many other male birds do, to don their breeding colors. Therefore they wear their eclipse plumage for a short time and then rapidly molt into feathers to attract a mate.

Clearly this strategy works. When walking around the freshwater systems of the Santa Monica Mountains, one can see that the eyepopping patterns of the male ducks are doing their job. A harem of females surrounds the blue bill, blackand-white head and red body of the ruddy duck. The showy black-andwhite crest of the hooded merganser brings females flocking. The glowing red head of the redheaded duck is in no way a misnomer; when the sun hits his feathers he shines like a beacon, luring mates.

So, as the male ducks release their drab eclipse plumage to wear their bright colors of the new year, I pause to look under last year’s drab thoughts and wonder what vibrant facets may emerge from this winter.

Meghan Walla-Murphy can be
reached at the following e-mail:
mwallamurphy@yahoo.com.


FANCY FEATHERS—The bold plumage of the male ruddy duck helps him attract a mate during the winter months.

FANCY FEATHERS—The bold plumage of the male ruddy duck helps him attract a mate during the winter months.

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