Volunteer Opportunities

    Updated:  May 2, 2008

We are always seeking qualified individuals for many of the opportunities listed below to meet ongoing needs. Please click on a link in your area of interest for current opportunities:

EDUCATION

• Join a team of ten students to undertake a unique mission and to make a difference. As a member of the Ecological Restoration Corps, you can be an essential part of real-world projects that help restore St. Louis’ natural environment and build a link to our region’s ecological past and future. The ERC is a service-learning program for high school students focusing on restoration of watershed and prairie habitats. Most days will be spent outdoors developing skills in field work, plant identification, and orienteering. Group discussions, projects, and field trips will supplement the hands-on learning. Throughout the school year, you will have opportunities to enhance those skills and assist in ongong community projects. Transportation for field trips will be provided. Program previews: March 19, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. at Litzsinger Road Ecology Center; and March 25, 7 to 8 p.m. at the Missouri Botanical Garden. RSVP today!
• This program is for students entering grades 9 - 12. ERC runs July 7-18, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. The location of this service learning project is the Litzsinger Road Ecology Center, 9711 Litzsinger Road.
• In addition to completing an application, a letter of recommendation from your biology or environmental science teacher must be received by May 15, 2008. Visit www.litzsinger.org/erc.html for more information.

• Need service hours for school? The Garden has developed the Students As Garden Educators program for students, ages 14-18. SAGE volunteers will teach kids about plants and nature in the two-acre Doris I. Schnuck Children's Garden. This is an awesome way for you to earn service hours, meet students from other high schools, learn about botany and ecology, and enjoy the beautiful Garden!
• 4 hours per week. Please see the SAGE Service Program for more information and to download an application (www.mobot.org/education/sageservice).
• If you're between 14 and 18 years old and enjoy working with children and being outdoors, turn in your application by May 15 and mark your calendar to attend a six-hour mandatory training on May 31. Earn up to 50 service hours between now and October 31, 2008. Scheduling is really flexible - you can easily schedule around school, summer jobs, vacations and other commitments.

• Lead tours of Henry Shaw's restored country home for the general public. Inform visitors how the Tower Grove House is an integral part of the Garden because it's where Shaw lived and worked when he started the Garden.
• 3 to 4 hours per week preferred (weekends available)
• Must be mobile and capable of standing and walking for extended periods of time.
• Training is provided; we will work with your schedule.

• Teach children outdoors, September through May, at the Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri. Shaw Nature Reserve school programs offer students the opportunity to experience and investigate the natural world under the guidance of skilled staff and volunteer Teacher Naturalists. Programs are designed to encourage inquiry, exploration and problem solving. Teacher Naturalists lead hands-on investigations that enable students to discover, gather information, ask questions, and begin to formulate their own answers. These remarkable volunteers have a wide variety of backgrounds and skills, but each has a strong commitment to sharing their knowledge and love of nature with children. Classes are hands-on with a focus on sensory awareness and ecological concepts. Other duties may include assisting with adult and family classes and special events.
• Minimum one day per week during the school year and a monthly enrichment session.
• Volunteers in this position must enjoy working with children and possess a keen interest in learning more about natural history. Some knowledge of ecology and natural history is helpful but not necessary. Training programs for new Teacher Naturalists begin regularly. Observation of classes before beginning training is recommended.

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HORTICULTURE

• Assist with the care of one of the many glorious gardens within the Garden. Tasks include weeding, pruning, mulching, planting, watering, deadheading spent flowers.
• 3 to 4 hours, one day a week
• Basic knowledge of garden maintenance is the only requirement. All other training will be given as needed by the horticulturist assigned to the area.

• Work with Garden staff receptionists to provide visitor services including: giving directions, assistance with Extension bulletins, Center fact sheets, computer applications and library resources; complete sales of fact sheets, videos and soil tests; and assist with answering gardening questions as experience and background allow. The successful volunteer enjoys working with the public and is receptive to doing a wide variety of tasks ranging from stuffing envelopes to using Center resources to answer visitors' questions. Must be willing to deal with small amount of money and be self-motivated to learn about the Center's many and diverse resources. Thorough background and experience in gardening is highly desirable. The ability to work with the public and computers is essential.
• 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. first, third and fifth Saturdays
• Formal training will focus on becoming familiar and adept at using the various resources in the Center. Methods of training will consist of group sessions as well as several self-directed learning activities designed to familiarize you with resources. You will be eligible, but not required, to attend special plant material, gardening and diagnostic classes arranged for Plant Doctor and Horticulture Answer Service volunteers.

• Write and review technical gardening information pertaining to your area of expertise, e.g., insects, diseases, etc.
• 3 to 4 hours per week (work can be done virtually)
• Current or retired trained professionals in entomology, plant pathology, or horticulture. Your work will be reviewed by your supervisor to assure that the information is in a form that can be utilized. By providing your technical expertise, you will enhance the quality and quantity of gardening information the Garden provides.

• Share your expertise in plant, insect, disease and/or weed identification with Garden visitors. Opportunities also exist for experts who would be willing to help write, edit, and/or proof technical garden and pest management information used at the Kemper Center or on the “Gardening Help” website.
• Flexible hours (Saturdays available)
• We’re looking for current or retired professionals in horticulture, entomology, or plant pathology or experienced amateur. Special plant material, gardening and diagnostic classes are offered to Plant Doctors on a regular basis.

• Manage hose routines, coiling hoses and moving sprinklers. Typically during the week 12 to 15 hoses are set up in one day with sprinklers that need to be moved two or three times a day.
• 4 hours, one day a week
• Training will be provided.

• Want to help in horticulture but can't take the St. Louis weather? Here's an insider opportunity! Plant records is an integral part of any botanical garden, and your help will allow staff to accomplish everyday tasks more efficiently and enable them to work on more complex projects. You will assist with general plant records data entry and with label/zinc production. Enter data in plant records database, operate laser engraver and embosser, assemble signs, disassemble and clean old signs for re-use, keep inventory of signage, and periodically go out in the garden to replace signage and/or deliver sign orders.
• Four hours, one or more days a week (Monday, Tuesday or Friday)
• General computer skills required, preferable experience with Microsoft Access. Knowledge of plant nomenclature helpful. Organizational skills and attention to detail a must. All procedures will be taught and closely monitored until you are comfortable.

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GATEWAY GREENING

• Work with Gateway Greening staff, Meramec Community College students, and St. Patrick Center staff on our City Seeds Urban Farm (between Market and Pine at 22nd Street in downtown St. Louis). Weed, water, plant, harvest, mulch, compost, prepare soil, and maintain gardens. Opportunities also exist for teaching horticulture curriculum to St. Patrick Center clients employed on the farm.
• 2 to 3 hours per week or bi-weekly (Saturdays available); March – November
• Some knowledge of growing vegetables is helpful. Experience working with homeless/mentally ill populations helpful, but not required. You will be provided with a tour and introduction on your first day. Supervision provided at the worksite. With this project, we will be enriching the life of the community, producing fresh food for distribution to city residents, and teaching job skills for the employment program component of this project.

• Choose from various on-going tasks at Bell Garden (3817 Bell Ave.) that include garden maintenance, planting, weeding, watering, pruning and special projects as needed. You may also choose to assist with vegetable, flower, or herb beds, compost projects, and maintenance of the garden grounds, equipment, and buildings. Opportunities also exist for those with horticulture or gardening knowledge/experience to teach special classes.
• 2 to 3 hours per week, Saturdays, March – November
• You will be provided with a tour and introduction on your first day. Gateway Greening gardens improve the appearance of neighborhoods, inspire, educate, and reflect the pride of the participants.

• Work at plant collection sites, dig and pot perennials, transport plants, set up for the event, or work on the day of the event so it runs smoothly.
• 3 to 4 hours weekly, mid-April – beginning of May
• The Great Perennial Divide is a huge event, and many regular volunteers will assist you as to what tasks need to be done and how to do them. This is an event which helps people learn more about perenials, gardening, and the environment. This is one way to reach many people to get them excited about gardening.

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SCIENCE AND CONSERVATION

• We're looking for energetic people who love to organize and create orderliness needed to assist the library staff in shelving books and maintaining the arrangement of the library's books. You'll be asked to perform a variety of tasks: Check in books using the library's automated circulation module; Arrange books on shelving carts; Shelf books (an average of 1,348 books a month need shelving); Maintain the order of the collection by reshelving any misplaced books and generally straightening shleves; Keep the labels on the shelving compactors up-to-date; and, as time permits, shelf read and double check for misplaced books.
• Two people, 4 hours, one day a week; or one person, 6 to 7 hours, one day a week. Monday, Wednesday, or Friday preferred.
• This position requires strength and stamina to push wooden library carts full of books, use a step stool to reach high shelves, and bend to access low shelves. Experience with computers and a willingness to learn the library's automated system is needed. Experience with word processing helpful. The library currently has over 30 volunteers, many of them serving the library for over ten years. Garden staff and volunteers have formed a team to ensure the smooth operation of the library to best serve the botanical research community. The library is a beautiful workspace with a pleasant, friendly atmosphere.

• The tropical Andes Mountains is the richest and most diverse region of Earth containing about a sixth of all plants in less than one percent of the world's land. It is also a region facing increased threats from human activities. Garden researchers are on a quest to document the unique plant diversity of this region and conduct extensive field work. They have discovered and described unique species new to science. We're looking for volunteers who are careful with details and like to organize to assist the Curator in processing plant material and data from this region. This requires data entry in the Garden's internationally renowned database and filing plant material in the herbarium. Tasks include sorting mounted dried plant specimens and filing them in methodical order in the herbarium. The data entry part of this project needs a willingness to learn the Garden botanical database program and extreme precision in data capture. Label or literature data to be transcribed can be in foreign languages. The Garden TROPICOS database is internationally renowned and has become an indispensable internet source heavily consulted by researchers all over the world.
• 4 hours per week
• You will receive training. There will be continuous oversight to answer any questions. Working in the herbarium requires the use of a step stool or herbarium ladder to reach high shelves, and bending to access low shelves.

• This group of plants contain such species as our local "jack in the pulpit", the common household philodendron, and peace lily. It is a group with over 3,000 species and the most important group of ornamental plants in the world. The Garden is the major center of research with Araceae, possessing the world's largest collection of herbarium specimens and one of the largest collections of living material in the world. Activities are broad-based and variable, involving work with both dried specimens and living material. Tasks range from relatively simple to complex. If you desire to learn and participate at a more complex level, you will be trained to do so.
• 4 to 6 hours per week (Monday, Wednesday or Friday)
• Training will be provided. The aroid research group can provide diverse and interesting volunteer activities. The need is great and the number of new species needing to be described is incomparable among neotropical plants.

• The Garden has recently acquired a huge amount (1,000 boxes!) of herbarium material that needs to be sorted for distribution. The material will be divided into a number of piles and then sent to research institutions depending on the plant group. For example, mosses might go one place, higher plants to another. The second part of this huge project is finding volunteers to enter our findings into the Garden's TROPICOS database.
• Hours and days of work are flexible, to include weekends. We would like to complete this project in a few months. Work on this project will begin the end of January.
• You will receive training to know what to look for in distributing the material in order to decide who is to get any particular specimen. If you're interested in the data entry part of this project, you will be shown how to use the TROPICOS database. There will be continuous oversight to answer any complex problems.

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RETAIL

• Operate computerized cash register and give great customer service!
• 3 to 4 hours per week (Tuesday – Saturday)
• Training is provided

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