Opportunities to Contribute Time (and More) to the
Massachusetts Envirothon

We Need You to Volunteer!

State environmental agencies have provided the bulk of our volunteer staffing in the past, but these agencies are facing tough fiscal times, like everyone else, and we've had a lower-than-usual response rate to our appeals for volunteers.
Can you help? If you can give even a half-day on May 13, we can promise you fun in the outdoors doing easy tasks surrounded by student community activists and conservationists. Volunteers are vital to the success of Envirothon. Please check your schedule again and try to squeeze it in?
Thank you!

Every year, Envirothon teams representing schools and community organizations across Massachusetts prepare for a statewide event in May that tests their knowledge of forest, wildlife, water, and soil resources and of current environmental issues.

This annual exploration of environmental topics and advocacy is made possible by hundreds of people: Envirothon organizers, high school principals, teacher-coaches, natural resource experts, parents, sponsoring organizations, and others. You, too, can help enrich and sustain this valuable program. There are many ways to contribute to the success of Envirothon.

Concrete Tasks: Visible Results

Please volunteer for the day of the event – this year, Thursday, May 13, at Otter River State Forest in Baldwinville– and allow us to assign you, often as part of a team, to tasks as needed throughout the day. All Envirothon volunteers are notoriously smart, good-humored, competent, and hard-working, so we can guarantee you will be a highly-valued member of a dream team, wherever you are assigned – join the fun!

If you cannot commit to the entire day, but are confident you could help with some portion of it, please fill out and send us the Volunteer Contact Sheet, indicating your constraints, whether temporal or physical, and the volunteer coordinator, Susan Benoit, will contact you to discuss the possibilities.

Getting as Good as You Give

Volunteering at the Massachusetts Envirothon has many benefits, not only for the student-participants, but also for you:
• You will enjoy complimentary coffee, refreshments, and lunch.
• You’ll have many opportunities to network with committed educators, community activists, and environmental professionals from across Massachusetts.
• You can interact with the student-teams (lunchtime roundtables are the best opportunity for this), find out what their interests and concerns are, and share your own. This is an excellent opportunity for students to be taken seriously by adults from a variety of professions and communities.
• You’ll spend a May day outdoors. No advance preparation is required: you get to show up and just be yourself.
• You’ll also reconnect with your own inspiration to make a difference for both young people and the Massachusetts landscape.

Other Vital Ways to Join the Team

Please consider making a cash contribution to the Mass Envirothon, which accepts tax-deductible donations through the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Districts. Envirothon has an essential cash budget that the organizers must raise every year. A cash donation of any size can leverage ten times its dollar value in time and resources from environmental agencies, educators, professionals, and other volunteers, so please give as generously as you can.

And consider making a multi-year pledge, to enable the committee to spend less time fundraising in the coming year and more time enriching the year-long student experience with additional supporting reference materials and other necessary supplies.

You can become an Envirothon Sponsor by giving direct support at a designated level. Your name or the name of your company or organization could be included on the Envirothon web pages and other program materials. Or you may wish to sponsor some specific aspect of Envirothon, such “volunteer support,” which helps defray the cost of lunches for the volunteers.

Or maybe you are in a position to sponsor Envirothon by funding an endowment, such as for student-team travel expenses (including grants for substitute teachers to replace the teacher-coaches), training workshops for teachers and orientation workshops for students, or additional reference materials. For some otherwise enthusiastic and talented high school teams, the lack of travel and substitute teacher funds prevents them from participating at all. These endowments may be more affordable than you think: Please click here to send an email and be contacted by an Envirothon committee member who will provide more information about sponsorship and endowment opportunities.

All contributors, small and large, are thanked in our event program. There is a space on the Volunteer Contact Sheet to indicate how (and to whom, e.g., your supervisor) you would like to be acknowledged, including, if you wish, the name of your company, agency, or organization.

Volunteering: It’s All About the Day!
So, if you can help make the 2010 Envirothon the best one yet, or are interested in sponsoring Envirothon at some level, please complete the Volunteer Contact Sheet or contact Susan Benoit (508-389-6393) for more information. Thank you!