Volunteer Day at the Park

Yesterday I helped to register people who came to volunteer at Fort Washington State Park in Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful day, if rather chilly in the early morning. I've helped out at this yearly event for over ten years. Until this year, it was called "Clean-up Day," but the powers that be agreed that "Volunteer Day" was a more appropriate name.

I had a spreadsheet which listed names and addresses of all of the people who had volunteered over the past two years. Checking them in presented no problem. But this year, thanks to the publicity that the event had generated, we had a lot of new people. So getting them registered involved getting them to come to our table and sign in. Well, actually, I signed them in, since some people's handwriting, especially when it's cold, can be difficult to decipher.

People began arriving, many equipped with gloves, rakes, shovels, and trashbags, around 8:30. There was a steady stream of adults and youngsters after that. With the help of the volunteer coordinator, Marylea, and the park manager, Eric, they were set to work on various chores.

Tree planting was the key activity this year. A number of trees of various species had been donated to the park, and had been recently delivered. Park personnel had used augers to dig the holes, so the task was not as difficult as it had been on some previous years. Other chores included leaf raking, trash pickup, weeding, post-flooding stream cleanup, removal of storm-damaged branches.

At midpoint everyone enjoyed a very nice lunch. Much of the food had been donated by local restaurants and grocery stores, and volunteers helped with the preparation. Some folks left after that, and others stayed on to continue with the work.

When the day was over, we tallied over a hundred volunteers, including an enthusiastic group from Search and Rescue. These people, who use the park to train search and rescue dogs, show their appreciation by coming to volunteer every year.

So all that's left to do now is to send out thank-you letters to the volunteers, and to think about how to prepare for next year's Volunteer Day.