Michener Award goes to Jaye and Erwin Keller

Erwin & Jaye Keller.
Erwin & Jaye Keller on a Chapter Backpack trip to Beyers Lake in the Tahoe National Forest

For the first time the Bay Chapter Activities Committee has presented its annual Dave and Pat Michener Award to a couple: Jaye and Erwin Keller.

This pair of outstanding backpacking and snow-camping leaders has been active in the Sierra Club as individuals and, since their meeting on a Sierra Club backpack trip and their 1994 wedding in Yosemite National Park, as a team. They lead numerous trips each year and play important roles in keeping the Snow Camping and Backpacking Sections running.

They are well-known for the quality of their trips, as testified by their large following of regular participants who fill the trips as soon as they are announced. Jaye and Erwin foster camaraderie and group cohesiveness with expert trip planning and a central commissary that is renowned as a gourmet's delight. Their trips are models that other leaders try to emulate. Many new leaders get their first exposure to backpacking with the Kellers.

Jaye was active in the formation of the Snow Camping Section. She has served as secretary of the section, and both Jaye and Erwin help train new snow campers. They helped write the Section's enormously popular textbook/syllabus.

Erwin has been exceptionally active on the Backpack Section Steering Committee, where he has held almost every office. His effectiveness is shown by the fact that the leaders have repeatedly re-elected him as chair. (This year they are giving him a year off, however.) Under his leadership, the number of leaders in the section has almost doubled. Jaye too participates actively in managing the section. Jaye is a tremendous organizer, who has particularly helped recruit women into backpacking and into the Section's leadership. She has organized popular social events for the Section, and special women-only backpack trips. Recently she helped streamline the Section's new-leader training. Jaye and Erwin both helped to organize the section's introductory backpacking class.

The Kellers are true environmentalists. They insure that all members of their trips learn about wilderness ethics as well as backpack techniques and wilderness safety. Erwin makes sure that section meetings include a speaker on current environmental issues. He encourages leaders to become involved in environmental causes and to lead trips in areas that the Club would like to have designated as wilderness areas (see articles).

Jaye and Erwin Keller are true exemplars of the best of Sierra Club leadership. Their trips are learning experiences as well as pleasant journeys into the wilderness.