National Volunteer Week

To celebrate National Volunteer Week, Tom Medema, Associate Director for Interpretation, Education, and Volunteers shared his #MyParkStory. Tom started his career as a National Park Service volunteer and now leads the department that manages the Volunteers-In-Parks program! This story highlights Tom’s own history with volunteerism, the significance of volunteers, and their broader role in the National Park Service mission.

In early April 2024, NPS staff and volunteers planted 81 fruit trees in the north orchard at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The orchard rehabilitation project was designed to reflect the historic varieties and layout, consider contemporary orchard management practices, and respect sensitive archeology. The planting is the result of many years of planning, consultation, and preparation. As it grows, the orchard will represent the agricultural history of the site.

Learn about National Early Service Training for the 2024 Winter Cohort of Community Volunteer Ambassadors

Celebrate National Volunteer Week with a Message from Director Sams: Thank you, Volunteers.

Meet Wesley Reverdy from France who spent summer 2022 volunteering with the Sonoran Desert Inventory and Monitoring Network and Chihuahuan Desert Inventory and Monitoring Network. He used his background in natural resource management to participate in studies to determine the current state of wildlife, plant species, water, air, and climate and monitor long-term trends.

Meet Dr. Laura Barraclough, a volunteer through Volunteers-In-Parks with the Trails & Rails program who brings her own unique perspective to volunteering with the National Park Service.

I'm Bark Ranger Bandit! I love helping with search and rescues to find people who are lost. Let me tell you about myself and my human.

Cadets from the Marauder Battalion Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) are invaluable volunteers at Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. In spring 2022, many of the Battalion's cadets will graduate and become United States Army Officers. The Marauder Battalion has a proud lineage dating back to the first military training program for African Americans built by General Charles Young. 

The National Park Service Youth Programs Division co-hosted a virtual event, “Stories of Service: Empowering Youth and Young Adults to Be the Future Face of Volunteering in National Parks” on November 10, 2021 with the National Park Service Volunteers-In-Parks Program (VIP) in partnership with the National Park Foundation (NPF). A diverse panel shared their stories of volunteering in parks and the impacts these experiences have had on them.

Celebrated for its history, Longfellow House - Washington's Headquarters National Historic Site is also a living space that is open to all. The volunteers who work in the garden today are a vital part of its care and a continuation of community involvement that is part of the history and preservation of the house and gardens. Hear from volunteers about how they got involved, their experience, and the aspects of the landscape that make them feel most connected to its history.