American Whitewater Volunteer of the Month Presented by Kokatat: Keirith Snyder

American Whitewater would like to recognize Keirith Snyder for her awesome work as the coordinator for the Feather Festival Tobin Downriver Race. She is our October Volunteer of the Month. Keirith has organized the race for two consecutive years and has volunteered for many past Tobin races. Since taking over leadership, she has streamlined every aspect of the event by utilizing her analytical skills she draws from her experience as a research scientist. Beyond maintaining a dialed-in schedule by herding volunteers, class V safety boaters, and class V participants, she never loses sight of the fun the race brings to the community by encouraging volunteer costumes and other props. 

Keirith started her long love of rivers as a commercial raft guide at the age of 18. During summer breaks in her undergrad and grad school years, she guided commercial raft trips all over the U.S. While in the Southeast for post-doc research, she added kayaking to her whitewater repertoire and quickly excelled to class IV rivers given her extensive guide experience. 

In addition to the Tobin race, Keirith has also been volunteering as an assistant coach for the Coloma Lotus Junior Whitewater Team. While coaching, Keirith possesses the "Mama Bear" effect that brings fun as well as the comfort and safety to the kids. It's easy to say Keirith possesses a diverse range of hats within the whitewater community and we all are very lucky to have her!

As Volunteer of the Month, Keirith will receive a gift certificate from Kokatat our long time Feather Festival sponsors. Make sure to give her a shout of thanks when you see her on the river!