Preserving Vini Schoene's Legacy at Cooper's Cove
Donation protected
The Burgundy Center for Wildlife Studies at Cooper’s Cove is home to so many of us. It’s where we first slept out under the stars, climbed our first mountains, or learned how to wash a dish and unclog a toilet (with staff members cheering us on). The Cove is where we learned how to be alone, and how to be together.
Maybe the Cove is where you had your first transcendent experience in nature, softly capturing a salamander (with wet hands) from under a stream rock. Or, perhaps it’s where you learned what a green bean tastes like fresh off the vine, seasoned with summer sunshine. The Cove may have been where you first heard a Wood thrush serenade the sunset.
Vini Schoene made this place home for all of us, and not only through shared experiences, but through the community she fostered. Hers is a world built upon the bedrock of a Naturalist school of thought — where we learned how to think (not what to think) while enjoying sublime sessions spent observing nature first hand and sharing that newfound knowledge with our friends. For many, the Cove is where we first felt truly comfortable being ourselves.
The gifts Vini has given us are innumerable.
Her legacy will continue on in all of us — through our work as teachers, artists, parents, environmental conservationists and professionals of every stripe — and in the alumni who return every year to keep the community thriving for the next generation.
Vini’s lessons have helped us define ourselves and our place in the world. And we not only carry her lessons, her lessons carry us.
In this season of giving thanks, we wanted to create a channel for the Burgundy community to show their gratitude for all that Vini has done for us, while simultaneously preserving the legacy she worked so hard to build.
In Vini’s honor, we humbly invite you to contribute to the Vini Schoene Legacy Fund for Maintenance and Improvement at the Cove. Your donation will be used for projects at the Cove, and only at the Cove, such as the construction of a new lodge and maintenance of existing structures.
Maybe the Cove is where you had your first transcendent experience in nature, softly capturing a salamander (with wet hands) from under a stream rock. Or, perhaps it’s where you learned what a green bean tastes like fresh off the vine, seasoned with summer sunshine. The Cove may have been where you first heard a Wood thrush serenade the sunset.
Vini Schoene made this place home for all of us, and not only through shared experiences, but through the community she fostered. Hers is a world built upon the bedrock of a Naturalist school of thought — where we learned how to think (not what to think) while enjoying sublime sessions spent observing nature first hand and sharing that newfound knowledge with our friends. For many, the Cove is where we first felt truly comfortable being ourselves.
The gifts Vini has given us are innumerable.
Her legacy will continue on in all of us — through our work as teachers, artists, parents, environmental conservationists and professionals of every stripe — and in the alumni who return every year to keep the community thriving for the next generation.
Vini’s lessons have helped us define ourselves and our place in the world. And we not only carry her lessons, her lessons carry us.
In this season of giving thanks, we wanted to create a channel for the Burgundy community to show their gratitude for all that Vini has done for us, while simultaneously preserving the legacy she worked so hard to build.
In Vini’s honor, we humbly invite you to contribute to the Vini Schoene Legacy Fund for Maintenance and Improvement at the Cove. Your donation will be used for projects at the Cove, and only at the Cove, such as the construction of a new lodge and maintenance of existing structures.
Fundraising team (4)
Ethan Stone
Organizer
Arlington, VA
Jessie Hogue-Morgenstern
Team member
Daniel Marner
Team member
Nora Ives
Team member
