January 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 16

Who, What, Where & how
-Around the Parks

Roots & Shoots
How Spring Hill Recreation Center in Fairfax County, Virginia,
partnered with the Jane Goodall Institute to create a junior volunteer program.
By Shawna Levins

I

was once asked by a reporter, " What's the easiest way
to instill a love of nature into
kids? " I laughed and replied,
" Get 'em dirty. "
Kids seem to relate fun with being
able to get dirty and not get into trouble
for having done so. All kids really want is
a chance to make things happen.

Too many missed opportunities
Until recently, I received at least half a
dozen calls every week from kids and
parents asking about community service volunteer opportunities for middle school children who are required to
volunteer service hours as part of their
civics class requirements in the Fairfax
County, Virginia, public school system.
Imagine how disheartened I became by
having to tell kids, no, they can't volunteer at our recreation center to satisfy
their hours because county policy states
that a child must be at least 16 years old
or have a parent volunteer chaperone. I
had to say " sorry, I can't help you " hundreds of times to parents and middle
schoolers alike, for an entire year after
I began my position as Manager of Volunteer Services at
Spring Hill Recreation
Center i n Mclea n,
Virginia. I figured if
our county's school
system req u i red
middle school aged
kids to volunteer as
part of their curriculum, then our county parks and recreation agencies should be able to offer
volunteer opportunities for them to fulfill

Shawna Levins and Aleya Bartis meet Dr. Jane Goodall (center) for the first time
at the Sewall Belmont House & Museum in Washington, D.C.

the requirements.
One day, I noticed a quote
posted on our volunteer recruitment bulletin board.
" How wonderful it is that
nobody need wait a single moment before
starting to improve the
world. " Those words
were penned by a 13-year-old
girl-someone who would be deemed
too young to volunteer and make a difference at our recreation center under

How

WE

14	 Parks & Recreation J A N U A R Y

DID IT

2010 www.NRPA .ORG

the existing volunteer policy. That girl's
name was Anne Frank.
I knew that I had to figure out a way to
create a junior volunteer program at our
recreation center. We already had an existing adult volunteer program in place,
and there was such a demonstrated need
for this untapped youth volunteer population that creating a junior program
seemed like the next logical step. To
plant the seed of interest for a junior program, we created a bulletin board in our
lobby entrance that was kid friendly, full



January 2010 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2010 - Parks & Recreation

January 2010 - Parks & Recreation - 1
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