The Gillette Nature Association
Mission
The Gillette Nature Association is an organization of community volunteers whose purpose it is to promote and expedite education, conservation and recreation programs originating at the Gillette Sand Dune Visitor Center and P.J. Hoffmaster State Park. 
History
The Gillette Nature Association was started in 1977 by Park Naturalist, Sandy McBeath with the intention of building a long lasting sustainable fund to support interpretive efforts and education at the Visitor Center and P.J. Hoffmaster State Park. He literally recruited his own friends to provide the initial start to the organization. Some of the original board members included Rob Torreson, Robert Walsh, George Wickstrom and Carol Bedford. Margaret Drake Elliot served as Member Emeritus. They promoted the Center and its programs through their affiliations with other groups and throughout the community. They also provided fund raising support. The group grew in members and eventually operated a gift shop in the Center's lower lobby. Proceeds from gift shop sales provided critical funding for programs and equipment during lean budget years for the State of Michigan. The Association gave the gift shop to the State of Michigan in 2002 and it is operated today by the Department of History, Arts and Letters.
The Gillette Nature Association has continued its tradition of financial and volunteer support for the Center and is now in an exciting phase of growth. The Association headed by Mary Holmes Sorenson is working to recruit new members and volunteers, create new educational and recreational programs for the community, including providing live animal programs in area schools, providing transportation grants to local schools unable to pay for busing to bring children to the park, sponsoring No Child Left Inside Day in honor of Earth Day, and creating a fund at the Muskegon Community Foundation.
