On Saturday, September 22nd, the Audubon Center at Debs Park partnered with National Park Services (NPS) for a large-scale volunteer event celebrating National Public Lands Day. National Public Lands Day celebrates public lands and national parks, encouraging community members to come out and spend a day tidying up their local public land. This nation-wide effort seeks to tie community members to public lands near them.
We were happy to welcome more than 60 volunteers and work with them to give the Audubon Center a bit of a facelift. With our volunteers and NPS, we mulched, swept, weeded, and leveled the Children’s Woodland, the Center’s courtyard, the Los Nogales Native Plant Nursery, our parking lot, and sections of the driveway leading up to the Center. It was incredible to see volunteers of all ages coming together to learn about the Center and help us maintain it! We had a couple of newcomers as well as some veteran volunteers working side by side to improve the Audubon Center at Debs Park. Volunteer Merrill Koss said “It was great having so many volunteers—complete strangers—working to get so much accomplished; and having fun doing it!”
After the event, all volunteers came together for lunch, provided by NPS. Over sandwiches, many discussed the volunteer day and the Audubon Center itself. “We got a lot of work done. It was a well-organized event, definitely fun. People were very enthusiastic about working,” said volunteer Ethan Peters.
We depend on our volunteers to help us maintain the Audubon Center in peak condition and to help us ensure habitat for local birds and fauna is viable. We were honored to host these 60+ volunteers who shared our mission to enhance the Audubon Center at Debs Park.
National Public Lands Day happens every year! Check out our photo album to see our volunteers hard at work (and having fun) below.
