Volunteer Programs
A PARKWAY WITHOUT TRAILS, OR STAFF, OR VISITOR CENTERS?
FRIENDS SUPPORTS THE VITAL WORK OF VOLUNTEERS
Locked doors at the visitor center. Unfinished trails. Fewer staff to answer your children's questions about our rural cultural heritage.
With recent funding cuts and 58 unfilled National Park Service (NPS) positions, the Blue Ridge Parkway must turn once more to its wonderful base of volunteers and student interns. But first the NPS must turn to its partner organizations, of which FRIENDS of the Blue Ridge Parkway plays a major part.
FRIENDS currently maintains a large database of volunteers that they recruit and track for the NPS. Over the years FRIENDS has donated funding to the Parkway for Student Conservation Association (SCA) volunteers, and to the Volunteer in Parks Program.
Why is it so important to staff the Parkway with these volunteers, young and not-so young? Volunteers of all ages help the Parkway's seasonal employees keep visitor centers open. They demonstrate their 19th century mountain homesteading and instrument-making skills in cultural demonstrations at several district locations. Campground hosts split firewood, provide traffic and parking service, and answer questions for campers and visitors to the Park.
Hand in hand, student conservation interns provide thousands of hours maintaining the park trails and working interpretive projects. Mindy DeCesar, Supervisory District Intepreter, explains how their interns work shoulder-to-shoulder with the Parkway's dedicated seasonal staff for 12 weeks, August through October, a time period teeming with onsite school programs and outdoor campfire programs.
"These students expand what we are able to provide visitors to the Park. They integrate with our seasonal rangers, doing many of the interpretive activities. I don't know how we could manage without them."
Susan Mills, executive director of FRIENDS, says that only four district interpreters are currently funded for the entire Parkway, a park which serves nearly 21 million visitors.
"The tragedy," Mills says, "is that our children and grandchildren may lose the educational benefits we enjoyed - questioning the volunteers about the 19th century living history farm at Humpback Rocks, working in the gardens at Johnson Farm, or sitting in the porch rocking chairs tugging at the sleeve of that patient volunteer interpreter."
The success of Blue Ridge Parkway is due, in large part, to its dedicated NPS staff. But they would be the first to remind you that, without the volunteers and student interns to augment the efforts of permanent and seasonal staff, the typical traveler's experience would be diminished significantly. Campgrounds would lose their hosts. Educational programs would be significantly reduced. Hours at many visitor centers would be shortened. Some trails would become overgrown and eroded.
It's all too painful to imagine. Your support of FRIENDS continues the work of Volunteers In Parks and the Student Conservation Association program. Funding the VIP program can increase visitors' interpretive experiences.
Want to contribute even more? Call FRIENDS and become a volunteer yourself! To donate, call FRIENDS at 1-800-228-7275 or go to Volunteer Application.
