Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park is a fun place to visit and it will be a great place to volunteer for a few months. It has two parts, one is the historic homestead of the famous Florida writer and the other is the picnic area with boat launch. We visited this park while we were camping at Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park and enjoyed walking the land and seeing all the artifacts from another era. They still have chickens in the yard, a garden, fruit trees and much more. The park rangers and volunteers give talks about the park, the history and stories about Ms. Rawlings. We took lots of pictures while we were there and will post them below. We hope you will consider volunteering for this lovely out-of-the-way historic park.
For those who don’t know she wrote the great classic “The Yearling”.
Here is our email response about the park and some of the duties that the Residential Hosts do while volunteering:
Jolene
Thank you for your interest in our park. We think the camping volunteer opportunities here are tremendous. I’ve answered your questions below:
What types of volunteer “Live On Site” positions do you have?
We have two volunteer camper sites. Camping volunteers do not work as camp ground hosts, but assist the staff directly with visitor services, tours, maintenance, and special projects.
What kinds of duties will they be doing? Visitor service, including giving guided walks through the historic home, is primary, as is doing routine maintenance like mowing, vacuuming, sweeping, raking, gardening, and archival cleaning. Some volunteers with special skills might assist with a unique project. For example, one current campground volunteer just completed rebuilding a chicken pen and doing other carpentry repairs.
How many campsites do you have? We have two volunteer camp sites.
Do they have electric (what kind 20/30/50Amp)/water/sewer on site? They have full electric, water and sewer hook-ups. There is no bath house, so a volunteer needs a rig sufficient to their needs when fully hooked up.
What other amenities do you offer these volunteers? (free laundry, firewood, etc) – The camping setting is beautiful and they have full privacy before 8 am and after 5 pm. Daily. The maintenance area is nearby with laundry facilities.
Thanks so much,
Valerie
Valerie Rivers, Park Manager
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park
Division of Recreation and Parks
Department of Environmental Protection
18700 S. CR 325, Hawthorne, FL 32640
352-466-9273; 352-466-4743 fax
valerie.rivers@dep.state.fl.us
If you have any questions about the park or volunteering please contact them directly.
Here are a few of the pictures we took while we visited this lovely Florida State Park.
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