VolunteerMatch

We are looking for qualified volunteers to help park visitors learn about Coe Park's cultural and natural history and to promote protection of parklands through interpretive programs and public contact.

Volunteers do all sorts of things for the park. They staff the Visitor Center, go on patrol, build and maintain trails, plan and provide interpretive programs and nature walks, work at fund raising events (like the fall TarantulaFest and the Mother's Day Breakfast), help with the Coe Backcountry Weekend, and develop their own special projects.

• Interpretation and staffing: Staffing the Visitor Center, interpreting the park's resources, helping visitors plan hikes and backpack trips, assigning campsites, leading walks, conducting evening programs, designing new programs, and much more.
• Special projects: Conducting park resource inventories in the backcountry, building benches and all sorts of other things, preparing and maintaining museum exhibits, writing or illustrating books and pamphlets, helping with the volunteer program and training for new volunteers, compiling park history, cooking for various visitor and volunteer events, building and maintaining trails, and so on (the possibilities are endless).
• Foot, bike and horse patrol: Assisting the ranger by patrolling backcountry trails (with a radio), answering visitor questions and interpreting park resources on the trail, providing assistance to visitors, observing and reporting backcountry conditions.
• Mounted Assistance Unit: The volunteers with horses may choose to become members of the park's Mounted Assistance Unit. They provide their own horses and transport their horses to the park. There are no facilities to board horses at the park. Patrol horses and riders must pass tests of endurance, trail composure, and trail etiquette.

Benefits: Altough uniformed volunteers get free admission to Coe Park and other state parks within the Gavilan District, to many volunteers, the most important benefit of membership in the program is the satisfaction they get from providing valuable services to the public and to the park, sevices that simply could not be accomplished without the help of the volunteers. Most volunteers also feel that the training classes, the special campouts, and continuing seminars offered each year for the uniformed volunteers add significantly to their appreciation of the park and the outdoors.

Volunteers also value the close friendships they form with fellow volunteers and look forward to the opportunities they have to get together at potlucks and other social events each year.

Come join our volunteer program and enjoy these benefits:

• Working in a beautiful setting - Henry W. Coe State Park is the largest state park in Northern California consisting of nearly 90,000 acres.
• The great feelings you get from sharing your knowledge with park visitors and adding to the visitor's enjoyment of the park.
• The health benefits of hiking, biking and riding a horse on patrol over parts of the nearly 400 miles of trails.

• Skills: Knowledge of natural and human history is desirable for interpretive skills. A willingness to learn and get invollved is more important. Time commitment: Volunteers are required to put in a minumum of 50 hours per year. Training: Requires a minimum of four days core training. Additional training days are available for volunteers who wish to specialize in areas such as patrol, trail maintenance, visitor center support and interpretation. Various additional ongoing training is available each year. Schedule: We recruit new "uniformed" volunteers once per year. Applications are accepted up to August 1st. Applicants are scheduled for an informal interview in mid-August - date TBD. Folowing the interview/selection, you will be required to attend four days of core training scheduled for September 12th and 19th, 2009, and October 10-11th, 2009 (overnight in the park). An additional four days of training follow and will depend on your choice and area of interest.