Piedmont Wildlife Center Volunteer Programs

Piedmont Wildlife Center Volunteer Programs

Piedmont Wildlife Center depends on help from our volunteers who are at the heart of all that we do. We would be grateful to have your help! We could use your help in caring for our education animals, attending outreach events and teaching people about wildlife, helping out in the office, and assisting with events, just to name a few. We have some wonderful opportunities that you can get involved in.

To register your interest in volunteering with us, simply fill out this form !

If you are interested in helping with the Celebrate Wildlife! Auction and Gala, use this form . The 2010 Auction will be November 19th, 6:30pm, at the Durham Armory, and we need a lot of help before and during the event. Volunteer activities are listed on the form.

Volunteer Orientations & Meetings with a Coordinator are available every Thursday at 4:30pm in the cabin . Join us if you are new, have questions, want to meet other volunteers, or would like to suggest something to make your volunteer experience better. Please call 919-489-0900 ahead of time to confirm there hasn't been a schedule change.

Volunteer Opportunities

1) Weekend Animal Care

Each weekend, we have one volunteer come in for an hour-long shift to take care of the education animals. They work with reptiles and our resident songbird. Weekend animal care gives you a chance to get to know our box turtles, the corn snakes, the frizzled dove and the bearded dragon lizard. If you join this team, we will show you how to prepare the food, etc, and then you can schedule yourself for weekend shifts when you are available. This opportunity is open for anyone aged 12 to adult. (12-16 year olds should be accompanied by an adult)

2) Weekday Animal Care

Our education animals such as the bearded dragon lizard, turtles and corn snakes need attention every day. If you are available for an hour on regular weekday mornings, you can help us take care of them. We will be preparing food, water and habitats for the animals each day, and we can teach you how to do it. This is a great opportunity to have hands on experience with animals. We prefer to train volunteers who can come in for regular shifts one day a week.

3) Outreach Events

Outreach events are a great way to have fun and at the same time, share a message about how people can help wildlife. We will be training a team of volunteers how to handle our education animals so that you can attend public events and help spread the word about wildlife. We will also share a few fun, educational games that you can play with people to teach them more about wildlife. Our events take place on occasional weekends and also on some weekdays. They are fun events such as festivals and boy scout meets. This is a great opportunity if you love people and animals! Once you have trained on animal handling, you can sign up for the events that fit best in your schedule. This opportunity is open for anyone aged 12 and up. (12-16 year olds should be accompanied by an adult)

4) Raptor Training Program

Piedmont Wildlife Center is preparing to be the host for some very special new guests! Later this fall, we are expecting to have a number of injured, non-releasable birds of prey that we will train to become education animals. We will take them to events and classrooms to help teach people how to protect wildlife and wildlife habitats. This is a very exciting endeavor and we want to invite you to join us. We are currently building cages and making arrangements for them to come. Once they are here, we will be training a team of people to handle these birds of prey so that you can attend events, and help make educational presentations about raptors. We will be starting a Raptor Training Program for a group of dedicated volunteers to meet once a week (on weekday evenings) to learn how to handle the raptors and how to lead educational programs with them. This is a very special and rare opportunity. If you are interested and willing to make a commitment of time and energy, please contact us through the form above and we can discuss more of the details with you. (For adults only).

5) Raptor Care

Piedmont Wildlife Center is preparing to be the host for some very special birds! As we mentioned above, later this fall, we are expecting to have a number of injured, non-releasable birds of prey that we will train to become education animals. We are currently building cages and making arrangements for them to come. We are looking for volunteers to help us prepare the habitats. Once the raptors are here later this fall, we will also be looking for adults who can come in on a regular basis either on the weekdays or weekends to help feed and care for these incredible birds. Please contact us through the form above for more information. (For adults only)

6) General Maintenance Tasks

We could use help on the buildings and grounds doing various maintenance projects such as clearing trails, building cages and nest boxes, helping fix up the classroom areas, tending the garden, etc. We have tasks for single volunteers and for entire work crews. Let us know when you are available and what kinds of tasks you can do, and we can match you with projects that suit your schedule and abilities.

7) Behind the Scenes Program Volunteers

We will devote one morning or afternoon each week to organizing our program materials or doing other general tasks to help the educational programs. We will schedule our workdays according to what works best for you. You can come in for an occasional workday or join us regularly. Tasks will include organizing the field guide library, categorizing the treasures in our nature museum, helping to create systems for our craft supplies, doing a little computer work helping keep us in touch with parents, campers and teachers, helping prepare materials for upcoming programs, putting together educational notebooks, etc. Many of our projects will be rewarding and fun, with instant results. It is a great opportunity if you are interested in learning more about what goes on behind the scenes in a nature education program.

8) Administrative Tasks

In our office, we have a number of volunteer tasks and we greatly appreciate the help of our administrative volunteers! If you have time available on weekdays and would like to help out with mailings, database entry, and general office tasks, we would love to have you. We can set up a regular schedule with you, or have you come in on a flexible basis. Let us know what works for you.

9) University Liaisons

We are fortunate to live in a university-rich neighborhood, and we need help keeping in touch with the students, faculty and staff of our local schools. Tasks include communicating with the university community, arranging occasional on-campus activities, recruiting special event volunteers, etc., and we need representatives for Duke, DTCC, NCCU, NCSU, and UNC. If you are a high school student and would like to connect with your school's clubs and community service office, we welcome your input also.

Again, to register an interest in any of these opportunities, or to find out more information, please use our volunteer contact form here !

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Piedmont Wildlife Center Volunteer Programs

Volunteer Opportunities