Volunteer to work with us for a full project weekend, or if you can't make the whole weekend, volunteer for either just Saturday or Sunday. If you can't haul dirt or work with tools, volunteer on the cooking/campsite team.
A weekend as a V-O-Cal volunteer starts with putting up your tent and sleeping bag in center camp on Friday night. A night in the beautiful wilderness!
Saturday morning starts at 7a.m. We wake you up to hot coffee and tea and a continental breakfast. While you slowly wake up and chat with your fellow volunteers, you fill your water bottles, grab some breakfast, and make yourself a sack lunch to take out on the trail with you. After being assigned to a crew leader, you pick up your tools and head out to your trail section where you work until roughly noon, take a lunch break, then work again until around 3/3:30ish. When you return to camp, you'll find beer, wine, soft drinks and snacks. Take a break to wash up before being served a hot dinner at around 5:30 or 6. Dinner is followed by entertainment (sometimes a local band) and/or a presentation by a local history specialist or naturalist.
You'll sleep oh so well and be awakened Sunday morning at 7:30 to hot coffee, hot water and a (big!) hot breakfast. Then it's back out to your trail section where you work until roughly 2:30, then pack up and head home.
To see more of what volunteering for V-O-Cal is all about check out the video below.
These are the dedicated volunteers who try to keep all the cats in the box! This job can take a lot of time and commitment. They coordinate site visits, communicate between the agency and V-O-Cal staff and the rest of the project team.
Crew leaders are the front line of a V-O-Cal project. They are the people-oriented volunteers who lead crews of six to ten people to complete a section of a project. Crew leaders have received special training in leadership, safety, tools, and technical skills.
Bring your management skills to life. Crew lead managers organize and manage crew leaders and volunteers during the project. Crew lead managers also recruit new crew leaders and can build teams for specific projects as needed.
These are the skilled technical workers who work closely with park agencies to help design the trails, boardwalks, wildlife-viewing blinds, community parks and gardens and everything else we build during our projects.
Kitchen leads serve as executive chef for volunteers all weekend. With several other volunteers to assist and support you, the kitchen lead preps breakfast, lunch, and dinner during the entire project weekend.
Take charge of the Pulaskis and McLeods! Tool managers help determine project equipment and tool needs, then transport tools to and from the warehouse and project sites. These folks also make sure the tools are clean and maintained.
Center camp managers are the ones make sure all our project volunteers are well fed, entertained, and comfortable. Volunteers are needed to solicit food and beverage donations, arrange for entertainers and educational speakers, pick up food and supplies, and do general event planning and logistics.
V-O-Cal projects take place all over Northern California, but all our of tools and equipment are kept in a warehouse on the Peninsula. Our truck drivers are the first ones on to make it to the project and the last ones to leave, driving the truck to and from the project site and managing the loading and unloading at each location.
We need skilled photographers to take photos and capture the essence of V-O-Cal projects, special events, and project scouting trips around the state. Help document the excitement and accomplishments of V-O-Cal projects. Your work will be used for future guides, newsletters, brochures, fliers, slide shows, our web site and more.
