A group of Sierra Club members visited Hawk Mountain Sanctuary recently to spend five days volunteering, doing many jobs that should be accomplished but are sometimes missed because of personnel or financial shortages.
Sierra Club members, from left, Linda Elder, from the Eastern Shore
of Maryland; Susie Milam, of Aust
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Craig Caldwell, the group leader, explained how Sierra Club's National Volunteer Outings program works.
"Sierra Club members from all over the country participate in this program that provides volunteer workers to organizations needing assistance," Caldwell said. "We send about 350 groups to domestic locations annually, as well as sending our volunteers overseas."
U.S. trips are normally five days and foreign trips are usually longer, according to Caldwell.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary offered easy jobs and some that were not so easy.
"We do a whole range of jobs, matching people with their abilities," Caldwell said. "Some are very vigorous; for example, backpacking into an area and doing heavy trail work."
Four men and 11 women volunteers, with an average age of 50, came on this work project.
Caldwell said the five days broke down to 3.5 days of work, a half day of orientation and learning and a day of recreation. Recreation usually involves something specific to the area visited; in this case, watching hawks.
"People volunteer for all different reasons," Caldwell said, "but they all want to give something back to nature."
It is interesting that people pay to travel away from home to work without remuneration. For this trip, volunteers paid Sierra Club $345, which covered their camping fees, meals (prepared outside) and lodging (tents) at a campground. Volunteers either drove or provided their own air fare.
Kathryn Parnell, of St. Paul, Ind., spent a morning collecting tickets from visitors at the trailhead. Others I spoke with were raking leaves, weeding and repotting plants — good, earthy work.
To become involved with Sierra Club National Volunteers, call Tanya Tschesnok at 415-977-5521, or see
www.outings.publicity@sierraclub.org.
Prospective volunteers can check with Hawk Mountain Sanctuary at
www.hawkmountain.org, by e-mailing Sue Wolfe at
wolfe@hawkmountain.org or by calling 610-756-6000, ext. 225.
John McGonigle is outdoors editor for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jmcgonigle@lnpnews.com.
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