Series: Highlighting WiRED's Volunteers

Val, Chet and Emily Bardo

by Angela Woon

McNee State Park, south of San Francisco

The adage goes “the family that plays together stays together.” And so it must hold true too when it comes to the family that volunteers together. Just ask Val, Chet and Emily Bardo, a close-knit family who not only share their love of the outdoors and animals but volunteering at WiRED, too.

“Chet and I lived at the McNee Ranch State Park, Montara, in 1996 when we met Gary (Selnow), who was a volunteer on Trail Days,” said Val, now a maintenance worker for Pescadero State Park. “He had so much passion for WiRED and told us about the work he was doing that it drew us, especially our daughter Emily, in.”

One of the first ways the Bardo family contributed was to dog-sit Poteen, Gary’s Golden Retriever, while he was away for long periods of time carrying out WiRED’s work. “We used to send ‘Po’ updates to him,” said Val, who’s originally from Canada. “Everyone enjoyed having him around, even our Corgi, Spencer! It was always difficult to give Po back after having him in the household for a month and a half.”

In addition to dog-sitting, the Bardos went on to help with mailings for WiRED. “Emily was the prime driver in all this volunteering,” said Val. “We’d do the mailings at least twice a year.” Emily, 21, is in her third year at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, studying animal science pre-veterinarian with a minor in Equine. According to Val, Emily has had a pony since she was about 4-years-old and was a “horse-crazed girl who never grew out of it” and whose eventual goal is to be a large animal veterinarian.

Chet, “a Californian local,” now works as State Park District Superintendent for the Santa Cruz District. “Since he went on a camping trip at Big Sur, Chet always knew from the age of 8 or 9 that he wanted to be a ranger,” said Val, who met Chet at work and have been married for the past 25 years. “We both love the outdoors and our work in public service has its appeal. It also gives us the opportunity to protect our parks and resources.”

Other projects the Bardos have been involved with at WiRED include contributing to the “Boda-boda" program by purchasing bicycles for children in Africa. Additionally, Emily helped in an unusual way when Gary first installed computers in Africa. “The children had initially practiced on keyboards drawn on paper,” said Val. “When the computers were installed for them, Emily corresponded with the children in Africa for a few weeks from her computer here so they had a way to practice.”

Val and Chet give credit mostly to Emily for their volunteering efforts with WiRED. “She kept us rolling!” said Val. “And, while we like having impact in the local community, volunteering with WiRED gives us a prime chance to do something on a global scale. To be personally involved in an organization like WiRED is tremendously rewarding.”

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