Work Party Mission – Have Fun, Share Your Talent, Connect with New Friends, & Make A Difference!
The One Heart Wild Sanctuary Volunteer Work Party provides compassionate, service oriented people with a fun, positive opportunity to meet new friends, help with chores and projects, spend time with our animal residents, and learn more about our mission, programs and efforts to ease suffering and promote health for all social animals, humans included of course, while taking care of our precious earth environment.
WORK PARTY ACTIVITIES
Work party activities and projects are based on our greatest and most timely needs. All work party days are devoted to activities that help us operate our sanctuary, contribute to the success of our education and visitor programs, and further our campaign and fundraising efforts on behalf of healing the nature-people-animal connection. Typical activities are shelter maintenance and beautification - cleaning, raking, painting, fencing, planting and gardening, trail building and maintenance, or administrative activities like stuffing envelopes, printing, and filing. Work party business is mostly good old outdoor, in the dirt, kind of fun and can be physically demanding and/or repetitious. Every task big or small makes a huge difference to our ability to carry out our daily mission of creating a safe sanctuary for healing, educating, inspiring, and empowering care of self, other, and our earth.
WORK PARTY LOGISTICS
Work parties begin at 10 a.m., with a mandatory volunteer orientation, and end at 4 p.m.
All volunteers receive a complimentary tour of the Sanctuary during their visit. If you are a regular volunteer it is also fun to know about new residents, new projects, and visit old friends.
As advocates for conscious consumerism, volunteers are encouraged to bring a meatless dish to share for our work party potluck lunch. If this is new to you, have fun with it, if only for today. This is a no judgment zone so wherever you are in terms of your diet, we welcome you. And for the work party, we encourage you to have some fun and find a recipe that is easy and sounds good to you and does not include an animal that suffers in industrialized farming (most notably chicken, cow, lamb, calf). If you have any questions about vegetarian food, please let us know, we would be happy to help.
We welcome friends, civic groups, and family volunteer groups. Due to the logistics of Sanctuary work, we may not be able to accommodate groups of 6 or more during work parties. Larger groups will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and can be scheduled separately.
UNDERAGE VOLUNTEERS
For important safety reasons, individuals aged 12 to 17 years must be accompanied by a parent or guardian in order to work inside any animal housing facilities. Individuals 15-17 are welcome to volunteer without a parent/guardian with the understanding that they will not be working within animal housing areas. For more information about our Humane Leadership program for students ages 13-14 and 15-17 Contact us.
Children under 12 are not allowed to volunteer at the shelter but are welcome to visit during a scheduled “Making Friends at One Heart Wild” sanctuary event or to participate in our RedRover Animals & Empathy program. Contact us if you would like more information about upcoming Making Friends or RedRover Animals & Empathy events. You can also request we bring Animals & Empathy to your child’s classroom or group.
WORK PARTY SIGN-UP
Work Party reservations are not confirmed until you are contacted by a One Heart Wild Sanctuary volunteer coordinator.
If you are interested in participating in a Volunteer Work Party, please help us learn more about you and any special skills you would like to share by filling out a volunteer application. After we receive your application, one of our Sanctuary’s volunteer coordinators will contact you directly about signing up for an upcoming work party. You are welcome to encourage family and friends to join you in volunteering; however each person in your group does need to fill out the application in advance. Thank You!
If you would like additional information about our Volunteer Work Party opportunities, please email [email protected].