TOLEDO, Ohio — If you're looking for ways to volunteer in the new year, Metroparks Toledo needs you. They're recruiting for the Volunteer Trail Patrol.
The Volunteer Trail Patrol helps with anything from answering visitors' questions, to helping people stay safe, to preserving the Metroparks' natural resources.
Three hundred patrol volunteers are present in all of the Metroparks year-round. You'll get to patrol on foot, bike and perhaps even on horseback as one of the two horseback patrol members, Trish Hausknecht, volunteer services managers for the Metroparks, explained.
Patrolling means you serve as the eyes and ears for the Metroparks' rangers. For Metroparks Ranger Jim Cassidy, that means alerting him to any potential hazards along the trails and keeping an eye out for people's safety.
If a tree falls across a trail or large branches are in the way or seem at risk of falling, volunteers alert us, Cassidy explained.
"Three of our operating principles are clean, safe, and natural. We really train that into our volunteers. So when they're out there, they're working to ensure that experience," Cassidy said.
The Volunteer Trail Patrol requires 50 hours of your time in a year. You'll spend 16 of those hours training with rangers, naturalists, and customer service members. A big part of that training includes CPR certification and first aid training.
Cassidy said that the training is crucial as volunteers have tended from bee stings to scrapes to calling 911.
"They'll come across something that we just can't physically be there at that time," he said.
Yet besides helping others and getting outdoors, new friendships are a huge draw for volunteers.
"We actually have a cute story about two Volunteer Trail Patrol folks who got engaged on the trail and eventually married. We can't guarantee that for everyone," Hausknecht said chuckling, "but it is a great place to make friends."
You can learn more information at a meeting at Wildwood Metropark Sunday, January 19 from 3-4 p.m. Register here.
