There are many ways that you can get involved at the Great Bay Discovery Center.  You don’t need any previous experience or special abilities to be a volunteer.  Volunteers for the Exhibit Room and Education Program must be 16 or older.  Many of our volunteer opportunities are perfect for people who lead busy lives but want to share some of their time helping others and the environment.

The Exhibit Room Volunteers work three- hour shifts from Wednesday – Sunday during our open season.  The duties include monitoring the touch tank, greeting the visitors and answering questions, taking care of the Discovery store, doing some deskwork and answering the phone.  There is a 2 – 3 hour training session offered each April, but interested people can call the Center and set up a time to meet with the Volunteer Coordinator to go over the information and materials.  New volunteers are paired with experienced ones until they feel comfortable about being at the desk. 

Our Education Volunteers take small groups of school children to various “stations” inside and outside and provide mini-lessons on various topics.  We have a spring and fall program.  The spring program is Natural History and includes lessons on the horseshoe crab, nature walks, and a lesson on the estuary.  Our fall program is Cultural History and has a Native American component, a visit to the gundalow and an archeology lesson.  Each spring and fall there are two consecutive days of training for these programs.  After completing the training, new volunteers “shadow” the program until they feel they can manage a group on their own.  The programs run five days a week and are 2 ½ hours to 3 hours long.  Volunteers sign up for days that are convenient for them.

Children’s Program Volunteers are welcomed for our summer programs, Once Upon an Estuary and Bayventures and our winter Bayventures.  In the summer the programs are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday mornings with an occasional afternoon special children’s program.  The winter programs are on Saturdays from 10 – 2 and during February School Vacation week.  We also need volunteers to help us out at the different events in the Seacoast area such as Exeter’s Revolutionary War Day and Newmarket’s Heritage Festival where we do children’s crafts. 

The Land Steward Volunteers work with our Naturalist and our Land Steward Coordinator out on some of the properties that are owned and managed by the Reserve and the Great Bay Partnership.  Volunteers pick one of the properties and on their own time, visit the property checking for vandalism, litter, invasive species and new wild life habitat.  Land Stewards are trained out on the property by the staff.

Osprey and Winter Waterfowl Monitors have a one time training session at the start of each spring and winter.  Osprey Monitors choose a nest and from April until August, or later, visit the nest and fill out observation sheets.  Winter Waterfowl Monitors go out on the Bay in groups, every other Saturday morning, from January until March counting the different migratory species that are in the estuary.

Grounds and Gardens Volunteers help out for the clean-ups, watering, weeding and general upkeep of the property.  There are several different types of gardens at the Discovery Center including a Native American garden, wildflower garden, and vegetable gardens.  We also welcome gardeners who would like to do some interesting plantings or garden design. 

During the year, we also have one time volunteer opportunities that may last a day or longer.  These include special construction projects for our school programs, trail or building maintenance, monitoring programs of special species such as the horseshoe crab or invasive species removal. 

The volunteers at the Discovery Center are a very important part of the mission at the Reserve.  We offer volunteer benefits such as a special T-shirt, a subscription to NH Wildlife Journal, invitations to special events, workshops and fieldtrips.  Each fall we have a special Volunteer Recognition Dinner where each volunteer is recognized whether it is for 3 hours or 100.  Please check our calendar for volunteer training dates and upcoming events and programs.