Riley Meehan, a Worthington, MA native, was a frequent visitor to the Berkshires while growing up. Katie Robb was raised in Stratham, NH and first fell in love with Western Mass when she attended college in the Pioneer Valley. They met in 2013 while both living in Stockbridge. Being new to the area, they saw the GBFG project as a way to make friends and get involved in the community. Most recently, Riley worked as a Conservation Technician with The Trustees of Reservations and Katie was a Community Outreach Intern for The Nature Conservancy’s Forest Health Program. Their dedicated work on the grounds and behind the scenes was a huge boost to the clean-up effort, the smooth management of events, and idea-building for the future.

This spring, Katie accepted a position as Asian Longhorned Beetle Outreach Coordinator with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources and GBFG waved a sad goodbye as Katie and Riley pulled up stakes and moved to the Boston area. Both are encouraged by the progress made at the Fairgrounds over the past two seasons and look forward to returning to see the success of future projects.