Liz Visser is the Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator at Friends of Grand Rapids Parks. Liz is a passionate renaissance woman, ray of sunshine, and queen of thinking ahead. If you’ve volunteered in a Grand Rapids park recently, Liz has had a hand in making it possible. She brings a deeply thoughtful and integrated perspective to supporting the community through her work at Friends. We caught up with her about her unique background, what inspires her, and how she’s building connection between community and place in Grand Rapids.
Friends of Grand Rapids Parks: Tell us about what you do here at Friends.
Liz Visser: I’m the Volunteer and Community Outreach Coordinator, so my job is a lot of logistics! I make sure everything is ready on the backend for workdays to go smoothly, coordinating events, and facilitating Park Stewardship Program pilot groups this year. If I’m doing my job well, things are going smoothly and people have what they need.
Friends: This is a pretty specific skill set. What paths led you here?
Liz: Actually, I have my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, so for a long time, I thought I was going to be a children’s book illustrator. But, I got really into sustainability my senior year of college, so after I graduated, I decided to pursue farming to create a better future through learning about and participating in food systems work. Well, 10 years later my body needs a break.
I saw the position at Friends and was really excited about how the role connected people to the outside world. It was different but still connected to my passion for community, ecology, and parks!
Friends: It seems like connection is a really big part of your personal ethos. Can you tell us more about that?
Liz: When I was a farm manager, I spent most of my time on 2.5 acres on the west side. Through my role growing people’s food, I connected them to place. Now, my focus has been more broad, across the whole city! There’s still so much that’s happening, it’s been really cool to pick my head up out of the field and engage with the broader community in a way I didn’t have a chance to before.
It’s so cool to see people get so excited about the city’s green spaces. It’s been rewarding to help people connect to each other and the ecology in the area. I really like how everything we do at Friends has that community focus.
Friends: How has your farming background influenced your work at Friends?
Liz: With farming, you have to have a foot in this year and a foot in next year. You need to anticipate challenges before they happen and be very strategic about how you spend time and resources because the margins are so thin.
That mindset prepared me for a lot for my role here; things come up but we have long term goals, so I’m familiar with the work it takes to balance the two. The planning process is similar, too. And I’m still doing the work of connecting people to spaces like parks and each other.
Friends: What beliefs, values, or goals guide your work?
Liz: I believe humans are part of nature, not separate from it. That lens should guide our decisions when we think about the future we want to have.
You have to start by knowing and caring about things around you. That can be the start for people. But, if you don’t have a chance to engage with the spaces around you, or you don’t feel safe or have access to those spaces, then sustainability is just not possible until you have access. So, having a role where I connect people to green spaces feels really meaningful.
Friends: What kind of experience do you want to help cultivate for people as you connect them to green spaces?
Liz: Philosophically, I really resonate with “you belong out here.” I see my job as trying to increase the sense of belonging that people feel when they are spending time in Grand Rapids city parks. I want people to have fun, have a good experience, and have all the tools and supplies they need so volunteer work is organized and purposeful. People deserve to feel supported, have a good time, and feel accomplished when they’re done.
Friends: What projects have you been working on?
Liz: I spend a lot of time on day-to-day logistics, event coordination, and supporting our park stewardship pilot groups. I’m also looking for ways to create new opportunities for volunteers so people can support our green spaces in all types of different ways.
In the past, we’ve mainly engaged volunteers for workday-type opportunities—planting trees, clearing invasives, doing trash cleanups. Now, we’re expanding that for event volunteering and “not-a workday” opportunities. These volunteers help support the logistics and backend preparation for our work. Think database management, tool sharpening, stuffing envelopes. All the little stuff that makes the big stuff go smoothly. You need to apply just to make sure the tasks we’re asking are a good fit for people’s capacity. In some cases, for database management, a background check will need to be done before getting access to systems.
Friends: What are you excited about?
Liz: I’m excited to see how the planning and back end work starts coming to fruition. The things I’m building are starting to happen. That feels pretty magical. As we’re building out these volunteer roles, we’re excited but also open to feedback and create more opportunities for people to be involved
Friends: What’s a little-known secret about what it’s like to volunteer with Friends?
Liz: We’re all just a bunch of goobers! There’s a lot of hard work that we do. Our program teams do a good job of making it fun and educational. But we’re all pretty goofy and have a lot of fun.
For people who come to events regularly, I’ve seen people make good friends and be part of a community of people who care about the same things. There’s an opportunity to be more deeply involved and I’ve seen that be really meaningful for people.
Friends: We’ve been asking people for book recommendations, so what’s yours?
Liz: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I found it very informative when I read it, especially how art and science are partners as opposed to being in opposition to each other. As someone who has an art degree and a deep interest in ecology, that resonated with me. Things are all connected together.
Friends: Thanks for chatting with us! See you in the parks soon?
Liz: It would be my pleasure!
