Volunteers play a critical role in helping us achieve our mission at Southern Highlands Reserve. Since launching a formal volunteer program in 2019, we have grown significantly in scope and numbers. Each week on volunteer day, we welcome as many as a dozen participants. In 2024, our volunteers completed nearly 1,000 hours potting up plants in our nursery, leading tours as docents, tracking phenology, extracting and cleaning seeds, weeding and planting. Every year we honor a volunteer of superstar status. The Volunteer of the Year Award recognizes an outstanding volunteer for valuable and selfless dedication and contribution to enhancing efficiency within the organization as well as spreading awareness throughout the community.
We are thrilled to announce this year’s award goes to the Dynamic Docent Duo, Lynn Bartosh and Rodney Holcomb. Lynn and Rodney began volunteering at SHR in 2023 and quickly became an integral part of our docent team. Their kindness, caring, and attention to detail make the tours feel personalized for visitors. Their sense of humor and easygoing nature make accommodating larger groups a breeze. Their ideas and enthusiasm for improving the visitor experience are proving invaluable.
“Rodney and Lynn add a level of professionalism that has elevated our docent program,” said Executive Director Kelly Holdbrooks. “When Rodney and Lynn are here, my stress level is so much lower. I love seeing them give tours at SHR, beaming with light and love for the place.”
Lynn grew up in Ohio, where her love of nature and the outdoors began at an early age. Her grandparents and parents were avid gardeners and conservationists. When she moved to Charleston, SC, in the late 1980s, Lynn helped establish a community garden for all to enjoy. She delivered the garden’s fresh produce to a local food bank in her ’53 Chevy truck.
Rodney was born and raised in the small town of Waycross, Georgia. Living mainly in the South and briefly in Ohio and West Virginia, he embraced his parents’ love of nature. He began gardening in earnest in 1990 in the sunbaked clay soils of Dallas, TX, where he focused on growing native grasses, perennials, shrubs, and trees.
Lynn retired from the fields of interior design and hospitality. In 2021, after her husband retired from the U.S. Air Force Reserve and their daughter graduated from high school, they moved permanently to Brevard, NC. Since then, Lynn has taken the Extension Master Gardener Volunteers master gardener class and studied plant botany in earnest. A visit to SHR in 2023 was pure inspiration, and she began volunteering soon after.
“The Reserve embodies the preservation of natural habitat using native plants and works to ensure the survival of threatened species,” she said. “I look forward to each tour we lead at SHR. Sharing with others all this beautiful Reserve has to offer is my privilege and joy.”
Rodney’s career was largely focused in HIV/AIDS. In Dallas in 1986, he was a founding member of AIDS Arms, Inc., which later became one of the leading AIDS service organizations in Texas. He served the organization for 16 years and spent his last five years as the Executive Director before joining Merck Pharmaceuticals in 2002. At Merck, he held several different positions in Training, HIV Sales, Marketing in HIV, and Women’s Health and Oncology, as well as new product development.
Rodney retired in 2017. Two years later, after their son graduated high school, he and his spouse moved from the Philadelphia, PA, area to Brevard.
“When I turn into the driveway at SHR, everything stops,” Rodney said. “There’s a sacred feeling that overtakes you there and reminds you why we’re alive.”
If you are interested in joining our volunteer team, please complete our online application here.