Five Rivers MetroParks Volunteer Newsletter - December 2022

Dec 1, 2022

by Volunteer Services

Germantown MetroPark during the winter season.

In this edition of the Volunteer Newsletter...

-Holiday Volunteers needed for Aullwood Winter Luminary Walk, Christmas on the Farm, and A Holiday Evening at Carriage Hill Farm.

-Get Connected Volunteer Survey Available: Share your thoughts on Get Connected by December 15th and be entered into a raffle for great MetroParks prizes!

-Executive Director Becky Benna plans for retirement in 2023.

-Volunteer Spotlight: Community Groups

-Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities and Trainings by Volunteer Position

-Get Connected Tech Tip: Entering and Verifying Your Volunteer Hours

-Volunteer Appreciation: Artisan Night at the 2nd Street Market--Volunteers with 25 hours or more in 2022 are invited to attend Artisan Night at the 2nd Street Market. RSVP is required.

Brent Anslinger sharing some of the holiday food and traditions on an 1880s farm

Holiday Volunteer Opportunities Available

"Great things are brought about and burdens are lightened through the efforts of many hands anxiously engaged in a good cause." - M. Russell Ballard

The start of the winter season is here and for MetroParks it ushers in the return of several holiday events! As the weather cools, it is still a great time to get out and welcome winter in our parks. Our holiday events are fun, family events that take a variety of volunteers to make them successful. Enjoy them as a participant, or join the teams and volunteer. The holiday season starts at Aullwood Gardens MetroPark with the annual Aullwood Winter Luminary walk on December 3rd, then Carriage Hill MetroPark offers Christmas on the Farm on December 10th, and closes the season with A Holiday Evening at Carriage Hill on December 17th. View these holiday opportunities and sign up to volunteer by clicking the volunteer button below.

Already signed up to help or unavailable to help during these events? Share our volunteer recruitment flyer with your network: friends, family, coworkers, and community groups. You can download the volunteer recruitment flyer here.

Get Connected Volunteer Survey

It's hard to believe but it has been almost one full year since we launched our new volunteer site, Get Connected! The site has made an impact by changing the way we onboard, train, and schedule volunteers, as well as how we document and report on volunteer service. As we approach the new year, we'd like to hear from you--what do you think is working well with the site, and what could be improved?

We've created a survey and are asking all volunteers ages 14 and up to complete the survey before December 15th. Volunteers that complete the survey before December 15th can elect to be entered into a raffle for a variety of great MetroParks prizes. The raffle will take place Friday, December 16th at noon and winners will be posted on Get Connected in our spotlights and in our Volunteer Blog.

Click here to complete this survey and share your Get Connected experience with us before December 15th!

Five Rivers MetroParks Chief Executive Officer Rebecca Benná announced she plans to retire from her position in spring 2023.

The Board of Park Commissioners is working with an executive search firm, WAVERLY PARTNERS, and has begun a nationwide search for the next Five Rivers MetroParks CEO. More details can be found here.

Volunteers with WDTN/WBDT joined staff to support a variety of gardening tasks at Cox Arboretum MetroPark.

Thank You to our Community Group Volunteers!

Families, service clubs, schools, non-profit or governmental agencies, or corporate or religious organizations are all examples of volunteer groups that help Five Rivers MetroParks achieve its mission. Working side-by-side with staff, Five Rivers MetroParks volunteers make Montgomery County a better place to live, work and play. In 2022, 30 community groups volunteered with Five Rivers MetroParks (*updated December 5, 2022), including:

AFSAC

AES Ohio

Aullwood Friends

Avery Dennison

Barrett Paving Materials

Brownie Troop 3110

BSA OA Fort Ancient Chapter

The Datwyler Group

Dayton Regional STEM School

Generation Dayton

Girl Scout Troop 34236

Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley JobComm

Heapy

Juvenile Court Ten and Under Program

Kettering College

Miamisburg High School Vocational Block Program

MVCTC Retail Ag Services Students

Pohlman, Talmage, Brown & Campbell CPAs, Inc.

State Farm

Synchrony

Teradata

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tipp City Young Men's Group

The Lutheran Church of Our Savior

University of Dayton

University of Dayton Camp Blue

Upsourced

Valley View High School

WDTN/WBDT

WOW Program at I am Boundless Community Pathways

YMCA of Greater Dayton Teen Camp

Volunteers with AES Ohio joined staff in planting native seedlings at Wesleyan MetroPark.

Opportunities for groups to make a difference in our parks are available year-round. Click here to view opportunities available for groups and sign up as a team. You can also request a private group volunteer opportunity by completing the Group Volunteer Request Form.

Volunteer Positions & Upcoming Opportunities

While some volunteer opportunities are winding down for the season, new volunteer opportunities and volunteer training are being scheduled. Take a look to see how you can continue to support your Five Rivers MetroParks this season.

See something that interests you, but have questions? Contact a Volunteer Coordinator at volunteer.services@metroparks.org or call #937-275-7275. Looking for opportunities where we need the most help right now? View our high-need, high-priority opportunities here.

Don't forget to FAN the Volunteer Positions you support. When you FAN a volunteer position you receive a weekly digest email for that position that includes new volunteer opportunities. It also lets your Volunteer Services team know that you are interested in that position and its opportunities.

Ambassador

Ambassadors are often the first friendly face a visitor sees welcoming them to the park and can be counted on to share helpful information and answer a variety of questions. Are you a people person? Here is a great opportunity to share your enthusiasm for Five Rivers MetroParks, 2nd Street Market, and shopping local!

Volunteer Carol Williamson starting her shift as Market Ambassador at the 2nd Street Market.

Roaming Market Greeters will rove throughout the Market greeting, welcoming, and interacting with people. Volunteers will provide wayfinding assistance and promote the MetroParks by passing out literature, as well as acting as a second set of eyes and ears for emergencies. Learn more and sign up by clicking the volunteer button below.

Animal Care

Animal Care volunteers support staff in caring for farm animals and wildlife animal ambassadors at a variety of our parks. These animals support MetroParks' mission by connecting the public to nature and education on local history, conservation, and small-site sustainability. These opportunities do require some additional training, and now is a great time to get started.

Barn Aide Volunteer Layla Garrison at Carriage Hill Riding Center.

Fall Onboarding for new Carriage Hill Riding Center Volunteers: Do you love being around horses? Don't mind getting your hands a bit dirty? Consider joining our team of Carriage Hill Riding Center Volunteers! Barn Aide Volunteers assist with essential daily tasks of our equestrian facility such as cleaning stalls, turning horses out to pasture, and providing them with fresh food and water. All new Riding Center volunteers begin as Barn Aides, and then can complete additional training to assist with Pony Rides, Lessons, Camps, and Trail Rides. This opportunity is open to volunteers aged 14 or older. Click here to sign up for a Barn Aide training this fall.

Wildlife Ambassador Volunteer Deb Zurawski with our red-tailed hawk.

Wildlife Ambassador Animal Care: Wildlife Ambassador Animal Care Volunteers assist with the daily care of the animals at our Twin Valley Welcome Center including cleaning animal enclosures, socializing, and providing the animals with fresh food and water. All new Wildlife Ambassador volunteers begin with animal care. Additional opportunities for Wildlife Ambassadors include Wildlife Ambassador Program Support and Outreach. These essential volunteers allow us to continue to care for and support these wildlife ambassadors that serve to educate the public on the importance of our conservation mission. Interested in joining the effort? Learn more about what it means to provide animal care for these Wildlife Ambassadors and begin volunteer training by clicking this link. Volunteers who complete the virtual training will then be contacted to schedule in-person shadowing.

Gardening

Gardening volunteers support our horticulture and education staff in caring for a variety of gardens throughout our parks. These gardens not only provide beautiful spaces for Miami Valley residents to get outside, explore, and connect to nature, but many also provide fresh local produce to those in need in our community.

Winter gardening at Aullwood

Aullwood gardener, Cat Mauser, makes sure everything is ready for our winter visitors.

What a GREAT year for MetroParks gardens and landscape beds! From Aullwood Garden to Wegerzyn Gardens, to the Heirloom Garden at Carriage Hill as well as the Demonstration Gardens at Possum Creek, volunteers worked alongside staff to create beautiful, seasonal colors throughout the landscapes and gardens for all to enjoy! While most of our volunteer opportunities in gardening have scaled back for the season, you can still sign up for a volunteer shift at either Cox Arboretum or RiverScape until December 16.

Whether a long-time gardening volunteer at one of our other locations or a new volunteer, grab your earmuffs and consider helping wrap up 2022 by signing up for a shift in Get Connected. If you are interested in being a garden volunteer, you can learn more about these opportunities by clicking the volunteer button below.

Programming

Five Rivers MetroParks provides a wide variety of high-quality programs to help the public get outside and get connected to nature. Programming volunteers work alongside staff to provide support at programs year-round that help participants master new skills, learn about the natural world, and appreciate the value of open spaces.

Adventure Central Kitchen Support: Do you enjoy being around kids? Know your way around a kitchen? Support our kitchen staff in preparing, serving, and cleaning up simple meals for the after-school program kids at Adventure Central. Great for student service hours! Learn more about the opportunity and respond by clicking the volunteer button below.

Skilled Trades

Five Rivers MetroParks takes pride in the variety of hands-on, skilled trades opportunities we offer, both in historical and modern-day settings. Our Skilled Trades volunteers help drive our mission forward by assisting with maintenance projects in fabrication, repair, and interpretation.

Staff Lead and Education Specialist, Deb Spencer, shows volunteer Jeanne Schoenharl how to make patterns from 1800s descriptions.

Textile and Fiber Arts: Have you "fanned" the Skilled Trades Volunteer Position? Did you know skills like sewing, crocheting, knitting, and weaving are highly valued and in need? We are excited to start offering more opportunities for volunteers to share these valuable skills in support of MetroParks. Currently, we are looking for volunteers with sewing skills to support opportunities at Carriage Hill MetroPark and Possum Creek MetroPark. View these opportunities by clicking the volunteer button below.

Get Connected Tech Tip: Adding & Verifying Your Volunteer Hours

As we close out the year, this tip is a reminder to help us make sure our annual hours can be tallied correctly by ensuring your volunteer hours have been entered correctly. If you have been responding and checking in to your volunteer opportunities, then the Get Connected site has been tracking your hours for you.

Have you forgotten to check in for some of your volunteer shifts? Or maybe you are participating in one of our autonomous opportunities like MVP, Nest Box Monitor, or School Program Naturalist and need to add autonomous/unscheduled hours?

Review your volunteer hours by clicking on Volunteer Hours from your Dashboard. This will take you to the Track Hours screen. From here, you will see all the hours credited to you for 2022 and even your historical volunteer hours with us. You can "add hours" from here too.

We have short demonstration videos to help you track your hours and add autonomous/unscheduled hours into Get Connected on our Get Connected Site Training for Volunteers page in the Volunteer Training Library. Remember the Volunteer Training Library is your go-to resource for on-demand volunteer support and training. Step 12 of the training covers "Tracking Your Hours" and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll find additional training videos including Adding Autonomous/Unscheduled Hours. Click here to visit the Training Videos.

Volunteer Appreciation: Artisan Night at 2nd Street Market

Volunteers who have served 25 hours or more in 2022 by December 1st are being invited to join Volunteer Services and our Five Rivers MetroParks Staff Leads at a fun evening of food, shopping, and holiday cheer at Artisan Night at the 2nd Street Market Thursday, December 15th from 5:30 pm-8:30 pm!

Artisan Night features many of the Market's regular vendors including food vendors, as well as temporary vendors, DIY Workshops, holiday carolers, and more. This year's Artisan Night at the 2nd Street Market will be held on Thursday evening, December 15th from 5:30 pm-8:30 pm. Be on the lookout for your email invite and make sure you RSVP to attend. Qualified volunteers who RSVP will receive $20 in special Market Money for food and shopping good for that night only. If you do not receive an email invitation and have given 25 volunteer hours in 2022, please contact volunteer.services@metroparks.org.

Don't forget to read the Tokens of Appreciation submitted for volunteers and staff on our Volunteer Blog here.

Thank you for volunteering!

Volunteer Services

Volunteer Services is available if you have questions or need assistance in signing up. Contact us at volunteer.services@metroparks.org or #937-275-7275.