Lower Columbia Chapter/Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI) is privileged to recognize our outstanding volunteer, Yvonne Addington, who has always been there for us, doing so much for our Chapter, and that’s been lots!
Yvonne Addington looks to the future and connects people to make things happen. Even before the Ice Age Floods Institute was formed Yvonne was an Ice Age fan and was storing the bones of a mastodon dug up in Tualatin, Oregon. Tualatin decided to become an ice age destination and Yvonne was one of the most enthusiastic supporters. In many instances she was the driving force or one of a team of people who made the ice age theme come alive in Tualatin.
If you dig into Tualatin’s many ice age interpretive displays, public artwork, artifacts like prehistoric animal bones and erratic rocks, you will find Yvonne’s impact.
- She arranged many of the donations to the Tualatin Public Library ice age displays including the mastodon which Yvonne stored for many years before it found a suitable home in the Tualatin Public Library.
- She supported the work of making Tualatin the first partner of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail.
- She spearheaded the renaming of the Tonquin Trail to the Ice Age Tonquin Trail.
- The Tualatin River Greenway Trail, with its many ice age displays and interpretive signs, has an “Yvonne Addington Overlook” named in her honor for her extraordinary contributions to the mission of parks and recreation in Tualatin.
- She arranged the donation and transport of a 20,000 lb. granite boulder and a 5,500 lb. quartzite boulder to the Tualatin Historical Center.
- She encouraged the donation of a 9’ bronze mastodon statue at the Nyberg Rivers mall.
- She is a founding member of the Tualatin Ice Age Foundation which is working on the future creation of a Willamette Valley Ice Age Interpretive Center.
- She is an advocate for the preservation of Ice Age fossils, having kept them from being destroyed by identifying places where they can be adequately displayed, not only at Tualatin Heritage Center, but in larger venues including the proposed Ice Age Floods Interpretive Center and the now completed rebuilding of the West Linn City Hall.
In addition to her long established career in public service at so many levels, including judgeship and public administration, she has played a significant role in our Lower Columbia Chapter. When we needed a new home for our featured speaker meetings she was there for us, bringing us into the Tualatin Heritage Center on the third Thursday of each month at 7PM. Today Yvonne is a respected member of the Lower Columbia Chapter Board of Directors.