Description
Start Date-End Date: 10/05/2016-10/05/2016
Land Manager Office: Grow Local Colorado
Land Manager Contact: Barbara Masoner
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner:
Summary: Members of the American Bar Association will be helping Grow Local with final veggie harvest at the Governor's Mansion, and will get a tour of the mansion after the work is complete.
Description: Members of the American Bar Association will be helping Grow Local with final veggie harvest at the Governor's Mansion, and will get a tour of the mansion after the work is complete.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.728729, -104.981917
Additional Information:
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 20
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 40
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 0
Total Volunteer Days: 40
Total Unique Volunteers: 40
Total Volunteer Hours: 60
Staff Hours: 5
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: Around 40 volunteers arrived to work on putting the gardens "to bed" at the governor's mansion. After pulling plants and harvesting remaining vegetables, volunteers were treated to a tour of the mansion. The number of volunteers on this project was more than expected. Due to this volunteers didn't have enough work to do, though everyone was able to do a little bit. In the future, confirming the exact number and making sure to communicate the maximum number of volunteers to the group organizer is advised.
Successes and Challenges: Successes: Volunteers really enjoyed the tour of the mansion. This inside look really heightened the enjoyment of the project for volunteers.
Challenges: There wasn't nearly enough work. We finished everything within a half hour, and there were a number of people that didn't know what to do. While Barb from Grow Local was great throughout the process, her organization of the group after the initial introduction was a bit lacking. There was a definite need to break people into groups and assign various tasks in order to control workflow and give everyone a "purpose". Barb however simply told the whole group of 40 what we were doing (harvesting remaining veggies, pulling vegetation from beds) and then just left people to their own devices to figure out what to do next. This led to some wandering and standing around for folks, and as I didn't have a good understanding of additional tasks that could be worked on, I couldn't help out with that need.
Lessons Learned: Confirm the group size! Too many people leads to a poor volunteer experience through a lack of work and purpose. The tour of the mansion salvaged that outcome this time, but if that hadn't been an element in the experience it would have been a pretty poor situation for everyone involved as we were done with everything in 30 minutes, half as long as their round-trip commute to the site.
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents: None
Description of Work Completed: Veggies were harvested, plants pulled, some leaves raked as well.
