April 10-16, 2016 is National Volunteer Week, and The
Raptor Center wants to take the opportunity to give our deepest thanks to our
volunteers. In 2015, volunteers contributed 24,000 hours to TRC, which is the
equivalent of 12 full-time employees.
 |
| Nancy Price, our blog author, packages peregrine falcon bands. |
Lobby Assistant volunteers are often the first faces
the public sees when they visit TRC’s St Paul UMN campus site. This crew makes visitors feel welcome, and
when TRC is not hosting programs or tours, assists with a myriad of
administrative tasks. On behalf of the
crew, Nancy Price agreed to write about her experience.
"Hi. I’m Nancy Price, and I’ve been the Tuesday afternoon Lobby Assistant at The Raptor Center since 2012. What do I love? Well, where can you work where your desk is next to a bald eagle? (Othello, one of TRC’s education birds, has an exhibit area very near the lobby desk.) And what’s more fun than working on Excel spreadsheets one week and packaging owl pellets for school children to dissect and learn about owl diets the next? In the spring, I assist the Midwest Peregrine Society project by organizing, tracking and packaging peregrine falcon bands, as well as working on the database that tracks peregrines – so I see firsthand where they started and where they traveled. What an honor.
On a weekly basis I also track the statistics of programs given and people seen by our education birds at The Raptor Center, and off-site. How exciting to see a little American kestrel or majestic bald eagle traveling to a school or a community event. Probably most important is that I greet visitors to The Raptor Center, introduce them to our venue, answer questions and direct them to tours and programs. So, it’s interesting assignments where I’m always learning. And the bonus is getting to know the staff, other volunteers and our education birds."
TRC created a short video of "A Day in the Life of a TRC Volunteer".
"Hi. I’m Nancy Price, and I’ve been the Tuesday afternoon Lobby Assistant at The Raptor Center since 2012. What do I love? Well, where can you work where your desk is next to a bald eagle? (Othello, one of TRC’s education birds, has an exhibit area very near the lobby desk.) And what’s more fun than working on Excel spreadsheets one week and packaging owl pellets for school children to dissect and learn about owl diets the next? In the spring, I assist the Midwest Peregrine Society project by organizing, tracking and packaging peregrine falcon bands, as well as working on the database that tracks peregrines – so I see firsthand where they started and where they traveled. What an honor.
On a weekly basis I also track the statistics of programs given and people seen by our education birds at The Raptor Center, and off-site. How exciting to see a little American kestrel or majestic bald eagle traveling to a school or a community event. Probably most important is that I greet visitors to The Raptor Center, introduce them to our venue, answer questions and direct them to tours and programs. So, it’s interesting assignments where I’m always learning. And the bonus is getting to know the staff, other volunteers and our education birds."
TRC created a short video of "A Day in the Life of a TRC Volunteer".
 |
| Diane O. puts together a new offering in TRC's gift shop. |
No comments:
Post a Comment