As I am putting in the finishing touches on my first eBook I thought about all the volunteer assignments we have had and all the ones I am writing about. How they differ and how they are the same whether the management is the Florida State Parks, Florida State Forests, Florida County Governments or even the National Parks/Forests departments they all want volunteers. However, they are not all willing to give us live on-site volunteers the bare essentials to work there. Yes, most will give you a campsite but a lot of them do not think it is necessary to include a sewer on site. Now, I can see not putting sewers on all the campsites in the campground because the cost is tremendous and the impact to the environment may not be all that good. But, hey, come on the volunteers campsites are generally located next to the bathhouses. How hard is it to run a sewer line to one or two of the camp host sites? Below is an excerpt from my upcoming eBook that I thought you might like to read about this very thing.
As full-time live on-site volunteers, we also hope that these park planners will take our needs into consideration when getting the approvals and budgets for these campsites. Our simplest needs are a level, stable site with water/electric and SEWERS on-site. There is nothing worse than having to drive over to the dump station every couple of days or emptying your gray and black water tanks into a little blue container and towing it to the dump station. Of course, it is also nice if your RV/Trailer will not sink into the ground or tilt over when a storm makes the ground all soggy.
The use of a washer/dryer for free is a great incentive and saves us, the volunteers, so much money and time away from the park. If you provide the little things for your live on-site volunteers they do not have worry about when and where they can get their clothes clean. Working in a Florida State Park can be a pretty dirty job and RV/Trailers do not have a lot of space for extra clothing. That means you have to wash more times than you would at home.
Of course, if we can have access to a shower with good water pressure and lots of hot water that would so awesome. It can even be located inside a shop building. Women generally need longer showers than men. RV/Trailers generally only have 6 gallons of hot water. And as we get older we all could use a long hot shower to smooth out the aches and pains of working outdoors. These little extras save us propane for our hot water tanks and we don’t have to empty our gray water tanks as often.
Finally, the use of an extra refrigerator/freezer is a great savings for volunteers. Since, most of us are on a tight budget with food being among the biggest expenses. It would be great to be able to buy in bulk. Again, trailers and RVs do not have very large spaces to store stuff including in their refrigerators and freezers. Being able to buy extra meat, produce and dairy and have them close by saves us money as well as the time it takes to go into town (wherever they might be located) and grocery shop.
With just a little planning and expense ahead of time you can have more volunteers be interested in coming to your park no matter how big or small or where it is located and even all year long. These little things are what most of us look for when trying to find a place to volunteer.
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