Group volunteer season runs April through October
Groups of volunteers comprise the majority of our workdays, and these work great for teambuilding and community engagement! We work with you to find a date and time that suits your group to begin the scheduling process. Then, we work on establishing a project and location based on current park needs. Some examples of projects that can be tailored to your group are below.
For more information on workday planning, volunteering, and our overall workday culture, visit our "Preparing for your Service Day" webpage. While we are wrappign up this year's season, please check back in March for spring and summer scheduling.
Facility Maintenance and Beautification
There are many facilities that need support with weeding, planter bed maintenance, and sometimes painting. We love to watch volunteers transform a space from "in need" to "looks cared for"!
Playground woodchip spreading
A necessary and labor intensive job is providing the muscle needed to spread piles of woodchips (specially engineered for playgrounds) into the play area for added depth to the safety surfacing. It is hard work but our volunteers take much satisfaction in seeing the results. Below you can see that around 6 inches of safety surfacing has been added to these playgrounds. There are almost 80 playgrounds here in our city and our volunteers do an amazing job supporting the efforts to keep them all up to par!
Before After
Park Clean ups
This can be a variety of tasks or a combination of anything on this page, but often entails trash picking, weeding, and any general beautification.
Rain garden Maintenance
Rain gardens needs lots of care to keep them functioning as designed. Volunteers get their hands dirty removing invasive plant growth and tending to this valuable and environmentally conscience garden that adds a beautiful gardenscape while diverting storm water.
Painting and Stenciling
Oh, the difference
some paint can make! Our volunteers are amazing at beautifying areas
using paint! We identify graffiti prone areas and even have begun
working on park bathrooms to transform the space into something more
welcoming. We provide the stencils and paint colors and the volunteers
always bring the creativity. No painting experience necessary although
paint projects are geared for groups ages 18 and older. Paint projects
can only be completed between 35-90 degrees and when there is low
precipitation.
Group Painting Information
River Clean Ups
Each summer we take groups of volunteers onto the Huron River to help clean up trash that accumulates in and along the river. These trips are funded by a grant from the Michigan DEQ so volunteers do not have to pay for boat rentals. Groups can boat from Argo livery to Gallup livery, which takes about 3 hours, or can spend 1 or 2 hours in the area of river surrounding either livery. Volunteers pair up in a canoe with a trash picker in hand to retrieve trash. And yes, it is as fun as it sounds. These clean ups can accommodate groups of 6 to 20 people. Canoe Liveries are open April 18-October 18.
River Clean Up Group Information
