Every year, volunteers contribute more than 50,000 hours to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. People from all different backgrounds, including retirees, individuals, school groups, scouts, clubs, and organizations, donate their time to support operations at Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Dedicated volunteers contribute in many ways, including assisting at the Visitor Center, staffing museums, hosting campground facilities, monitoring piping plovers, maintaining trails and historic buildings, removing invasive plants, and much more.More than 1,800 people annually make the time to give something back to Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Volunteer opportunities can vary from donating several months at a time to contributing a few hours throughout the year. Volunteering is a great way to meet other individuals who share your interests.
Opportunities for High School Students
Youth Visual Media Corps
Local high school students can assist rangers with engaging youth through digital media. Projects include, but are not limited to: photography, creating content for social media, and editing videos.
Hours spent during the media creation process will count towards service hours for students, which can be highlighted on college applications and resumes.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore can loan free equipment to use for projects, including cameras, tripods, and audio recording equipment. The park can also provide free Bay Area Transportation Authority (BATA) bus passes for students to access the park via public transit if needed.
If interested, please email us! In your email, include your name, what high school you are attending, and what project you would be interested in (one of the above mentioned, or your own idea).
Ongoing Opportunities
Junior Angler
Summer: This event teaches children how to be safe and responsible fishers. Volunteers assist rangers at an activity station. Each station has hands on activities for kids to do which line up with activities in a Junior Angler book. Station assignments depend on your comfort level.
Winter (Ice fishing): Ice fishing has activity stations like summer angler but focuses on winter safety and fishing. Ice fishing adds an outdoor activity that will allow children to get on a lake, drill a hole, and set up a fishing line.
Adopting and Maintaining Park Trails
Architectural Drawings (CADD)
Volunteers or students with knowledge of CADD programs can assist the park's historical architect in translating building and landscape drawings into CADD.
There are many different volunteer positions available for this two-day event. Some stations include parking assistant, table greeter, floater, kid’s games attendant, maple taffy making and more. No prior experience is needed in MOST roles.
There are many different volunteer positions available for this two-day event. Some stations include parking assistant, Junior Ranger, rope making, kids’ games, 1800’s activity stations, and more. No prior experience is needed in MOST roles.
Candlelight Hike
Support usually comes in the form of set up and take down assistance, crossing guard for visitors, table greeter, or clicking the number of visitors in attendance. No prior experience is needed for any role.
Volunteers with prior education or interpretation experience can assist at an educational station where visitors will spend 5-10 minutes learning about the topic at your site.
Barn Workshop (Third week in June)
This “hands-on” workshop teaches volunteers techniques on how to do restoration work on timber and frame structures. Each year volunteers help repair a different historic building to learn these techniques.
Pruning Workshop (First Friday in May)
This workshop focuses on the maintenance of neglected apple trees throughout Sleeping Bear Dunes. Through this workshop, volunteers learn how to bring the apple trees back into production and maintain their health.
Spring, Summer, and Fall Opportunities
Interpretation
Visitor Center
Volunteers at the Visitor Center help orient visitors to the park, give them trail recommendations, and answer other questions they many have. The hours are typically from 10am-2pm
Museum Docent
Docents staff four museums in the historic village of Glen Haven. In the Maritime Museum, docents talk with visitors about the history of the United State Life Saving Service at Sleeping Bear Dunes. In the General Store, docents teach visitors the history of D. H. Day and show them how he expanded the town of Glen Haven. The Cannery tells the story of cherry canning and dunesmobile rides. After volunteers can open/close the museums and independently give tours, they interpret at the blacksmith shop. Some volunteers start apprenticing to become blacksmiths themselves.
Local docents volunteer 10:30am-2pm., 2pm-5:30pm, or 10:30am-5:30pm.
Sleeping Bear Dunes offers free camping spaces for docents who can commit at least 8 weeks as a Glen Haven Docent. To learn more about becoming a Glen Haven volunteer, watch this short video.
Campground hosts assist rangers in managing campground operations, interact with visitors, answer questions, make periodic campground patrols to remove expired tags from site posts, and more. A minimum of one continuous month of work is required and a minimum of 32 hours per week is required for the volunteer occupants of one campsite. Hosts should be flexible in accepting duty schedules, which will include spending most evenings in the campground when on duty.
Hosts are brought on each year for D. H. Day Campground, a rustic campground, and Platte River Campground, a modern campground. Search for Sleeping Bear Dunes on volunteer.gov to look at current openings.
Star Party
Star parties are offered to the public once per month from April to October. Star party volunteers assist with parking the first 1-2 hours around sunset. If volunteers wish to stay longer, they help rangers answer visitor questions and interact with visitors in line for the telescope.
Maintenance Opportunities
Leading major clean-up efforts to collect trash.
Stabilizing and rehabilitating historic structures and landscapes.
Natural Resource Opportunities
Eliminating exotic weeds
Planting native plants
Monitoring avian botulism
outreach about wildlife safety and protection
Preventative Search And Rescue Opportunities
Preventative Search and Rescue (PSAR) volunteers are stationed at the Dunes Climb and Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive Lake Michigan Overlook during peak use times. PSAR volunteers provide vital safety messaging to recreating visitors.
