Missouri Conservation Corps

The mission of Missouri Conservation Corps is to involve citizens in meaningful service, promote environmental stewardship, and develop leadership skills to reduce climate impact.

Missouri Conservation Corps is excited to be a part of the 2025 CoMoGives Campaign, and we would like for our donors to know how their donations will be used.  Because we are a community nonprofit, we rely on grant funding and on community donations to continue our environmental work in Columbia. 

Here are just a few ways your donation will make an impact:

1. help us develop and support an urban tree-planting program in Columbia to bring trees to neighborhoods that need them most
2. help us continue our community environmental education programming for youth, families, and community members with MCC Naturalist Laura Semken
3. help us strengthen and expand community awareness of the importance of habitat restoration, tree planting, native plants, and environmental education.
4. help us continue to bring excitement for the outdoors and an interest in nature to our young friends in the Camp I Love Me Summer Camp, a subsidized summer camp that brings area youth to nature each summer in Columbia.

Missouri Conservation Corps is excited to be a part of the 2025 CoMoGives Campaign.  This is our second time to participate in CoMoGives, and we are eager to use this as a chance to share our accomplishments and our new goals with the community!  This year, we are working hard to raise supporting funds for our work with the Camp I Love Me Summer Camp, and to bring support for the educational offerings provided by our Naturalist, Laura Semken.  Because we no longer have direct financial support for these avenues of environmental education in our community, we will need to raise these funds through ComoGives, with help from friends and partners like you.

Since April of 2021 Missouri Conservation Corps has been active in our community, engaging volunteers in activities related to habitat restoration, invasive species removal, tree planting, creek cleanups, environmental education, and community engagement.  Our work is carried out in Columbia’s parks, creeks, trails and green spaces.  During the summer Missouri Conservation Corps organizes and leads a series of environmental education segments for a community summer camp called Camp I Love Me.  Our goal with this work is to provide a safe and comfortable first time experience in nature for Columbia youth, while teaching lessons around the concepts of sustainability, wildlife, forest foraging, wild edibles, aquatic habitat and water quality.

Our organization is now four years old, and we have broadened our scope of habitat work and community engagement to include the development of a series of educational segments hosted by our Naturalist, Laura Semken, as well as expanding the range of our restoration work into Columbia’s Garth Nature Area, Bonnie View Nature Sanctuary, Flat Branch Creek, the MKT Trail, and the historic village of Arrow Rock.

Community outreach has become very important to our organization, and our path ahead will involve a greater effort at community outreach and engagement.  This will help our organization develop a stronger volunteer base, and it will also help us find friends and allies in communities and neighborhoods where habitat restoration and tree planting is needed.

A donation to Missouri Conservation Corps will help our organization expand our work in Columbia’s parks and green spaces, will help us expand our environmental education programming during the summer, and will help us procure and maintain the necessary tools and supplies to do our work in the community.