Meet the Team: Mercedes Benedict
Let us introduce you to Mercedes Benedict (she/her) — a mom, nature lover, and member of the Free Forest School team.
Mercedes lives in Washington state on the traditional land of the Coast Salish and Duwamish peoples, about 30 minutes outside Seattle. She has two kiddos: Beatrix (age 6) and Max (age 5).
After learning about FFS online, Mercedes connected with our Seattle group in 2017, just in time to attend their very first meet-up. She started hosting local events, then began volunteering with the central FFS org, until finally joining our staff in early 2020. Now she serves as the Administration Manager, which basically means she keeps all the nuts and bolts of FFS in working order.
As Mercedes puts it, “I prefer to be behind the scenes working on the accounting tasks and maintaining our database integrity, systems, and processes. I am a pretty fastidious person and I love organizing so that is my wheelhouse.” With 10 years of experience in accounting and research, along with eight years in the nonprofit world, her attention to detail keeps the ship running smoothly.
When asked about her personal connection with nature, she responded, “I did not grow up in an ‘outdoorsy’ family. My mother came from a very proper Spanish family who did not think girls should be mucking around in the dirt, or getting dirty in general. It was really my friends who introduced me to nature. We went hiking in the Olympic National Forest, swimming in hot springs, surfing and camping in La Push. I loved it and it changed my perspective on the planet, our connection to it, and our responsibility to take care of it. When I became a parent, I wanted to make sure a respect and love of nature was central to their upbringing as well as the skills and self reliance that come with child-led unstructured nature play.”
Mercedes is excited to share and learn from our wonderful community on the new Our Outdoors platform, especially through the Interest Groups feature. “I look forward to seeing people’s photos, getting gear recommendations and book suggestions, as well as connecting with caregivers of other neurodiverse kiddos.”
