Friends of China Camp

Diane Kay, a longtime volunteer at China Camp State Park, has some remarkable family history. In the 1850s, her great-great grandfather left Russia and ended up on land that would become part of Yosemite National Park. He started several businesses, including a camping concession and a general store, and raised a family.

With that kind of family background, it’s easy to imagine that respect and love of nature is in Diane’s DNA. Reared in the Loch Lomond neighborhood of San Rafael, she now lives in Peacock Gap, a stone’s throw from China Camp—and all the natural beauty it protects.

For many visitors to China Camp, Diane sets the tone for the park experience. She’s known for her big, bright smile, a welcome that beams out from the kiosk at the entrance to the campground where she volunteers most weekends. At the kiosk, Diane loves meeting and helping people, offering information about the park, and collecting trail-use and membership fees.

“Diane has worn several hats as a volunteer at the park,” says fellow Friends of China Camp volunteer Harriot Manley. “But no matter what jobs she has done—working with the trail maintenance team, helping edit articles, or greeting visitors at the campground kiosk—she does everything with a generous and open spirit and that nonstop smile. She’s a wonderful emissary for China Camp.”

Meeting happy people in her happy place

For a quarter century, Diane worked as an urban planner at UC San Francisco. After so many years of demanding, intellectual work, including helping to plan the vast 43-acre UCSF Mission Bay campus, Diane finds working with people in nature to be a rewarding and satisfying change. She says park visitors tend to be happy, a quality she loves. Between college and graduate school, Diane worked at a chocolate shop in Mammoth Lakes, California. If you want to work with happy people, try selling chocolate—or volunteering at China Camp.

Over the years, Diane has been able to travel extensively. She also speaks and studies French, is a member of a photography club, and loves to hike. But few things give Diane greater pleasure than sitting in a chair in or near the campground entrance kiosk, gazing out at the vibrantly alive tidal wetlands fronting China Camp.

“Talk about lucky,” she says with that incandescent smile. We’re lucky too—to have a volunteer as positive and warm as Diane Kay.

—by Janet Wiscombe/FOCC volunteer