River Bend Nature Center Volunteer Opportunities

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Volunteer Naturalist:

Over 15,000 elementary students visit the center each year. These visits provide students with a unique field trip experience taught by both staff and trained volunteers. A desire to learn more about nature and a willingness to share your enthusiasm and knowledge with the students is all you need to be a volunteer naturalist. Prior experience is not necessary since training is provided.

Office Volunteer:

Many hands are needed to operate River Bend, especially when it comes to folding letters, preparing mailings, and labeling envelopes. If you have time during the day we can use your assistance about once a month to work on office projects.

Volunteer Receptionist:

The nature center is short staffed on Monday’s and could use an extra set of hands for administrative work. We are in need of a volunteer to greet visitors, answer phone calls, and do some light office work.

Weekend Building Volunteers:

River Bend’s regular staff work throughout the week and sometimes do programs on weekends. We sometimes need help to keep the Interpretive Center open on the weekends. Hours are Saturday 9am to 4pm. Volunteers are trained in greeting visitors and answering phone calls.

Land Management Volunteers:

 Restoration Club Volunteer: Learn hands on restoration techniques here at River Bend to combat invasive species and restore the land to a native conditions.

 River Bend Rangers: Use the UTV Gator with a child or grandchild to serve as a weekend ground keeper. Shifts are on Saturdays and you would serve as a trail monitor. Possible tasks would include assisting trail users with questions, picking up litter, and clearing trail.

 Cross Country Ski Groomer: Assist with grooming over 7 miles of ski trails throughout the season using snowmobiles and grooming equipment.

 River Bend Mowers: Assist throughout the season to mow and maintain the 1o miles of trails and nature center lawn.

 Maple Syruping Volunteer: Work with the staff to tap between 75-100 maple trees or monitor the evaporator and watch the sap turn into syrup!

Special Events:

River Bend holds several special events each year with many opportunities for volunteers.. Events include Bats, Bones and Bonfires, WinterFest, Fat Tire Bike Event, Trivia Bee, Maple Syrup Fun Run, and Pancake Brunch, Maple Syrup Open House and more! Volunteers are utilized for set up, food preparation, selling tickets, parking, leading walks, and more!