NPS PHOTO

Volunteer at Fort Clatsop!

Fort Clatsop has an outstanding team of Volunteers in Parks (VIPs). These VIPs assist the park with a wide variety of tasks. These include greeting and orienting visitor, assisting with special events, fee collection, invasive plant control, answering visitors’ questions, data entry, filing, answering phones, designing curriculum, library and inventory projects, archive/collections/archeology work, and conducting living history and education programs. 

Volunteers are encouraged to participate in park training. This includes the annual staff training week in June as well as monthly staff safety meetings.

RV sites with no hookups are available for VIPs with RVs who don’t live locally. 

If you are interested in applying to be a Fort Clatsop VIP please read some sample job descriptions below or at www.volunteer.gov/gov and complete the application at www.nps.gov/volunteer ; or send your completed application with your resume to Sally Freeman,  Volunteer Program Manager, Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, 92343 Fort Clatsop Rd., Astoria, Oregon 97103.

Current VIP opportunities at Lewis and Clark NHP

• Contextual Interpreter: Orient visitors to a first-person historical interpretation of activities of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s winter at Fort Clatsop. Serve as a "link" between the past and the present for visitors by answering questions that the character interpreters cannot answer. This work occurs during occasional special events, generally the third weekends of July and August and Christmas vacation.
  
• Education assistant: Assist rangers with organizing school groups and conducting activities with school children. Share lessons relating to the Lewis and Clark Expedition with education groups visiting the park. Assist with the park’s traveling trunk and video loan programs. This work occurs mostly in the spring and fall of each year.
  
• Visitor information assistant: Greet and orient visitors, collect admission fees, & answer questions about the area including the winter the Lewis and Clark Expedition camped at Fort Clatsop as well as give tours to tour groups. This work occurs all year.
  
• Cultural resource assistant: Assist rangers with library projects as well as occasional archive/collections or archaeology work. This work occurs all year.
  
• Trail maintenance assistant: Assist staff with trail patrolling and maintenance. This work occurs all year.
  
• Transportation interpreter: Greet arriving visitors and orient them to the summer shuttle system as well as the programs scheduled in the park that day. This work occurs June 12 – September 4, 2006

If you are interested in applying to be a Fort Clatsop VIP please read some sample job descriptions and complete the application. Please send your completed application with your resume to:

Volunteer Program Manager
Fort Clatsop National Memorial
92343 Fort Clatsop Road
Astoria, Oregon 97103

For more information contact: Sally Freeman at (503) 861-4424.

Mission Statement for LEWI’s Volunteers in Parks Program

The mission of the Volunteers in Parks program of Lewis and Clark National Historical Park is to provide individuals opportunities to commemorate, preserve, and communicate the stories associated with the Corps of Discovery and its winter near the mouth of the Columbia River. Volunteers are important team members of the park staff and are encouraged to participate in all trainings, meetings, special events, etc. that are available to staff. This program will affirm their ownership and stewardship of this park and the entire National Park Service and will honor their specific contributions.