On April 1, we held our annual Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast at Vi at Bentley Village. Thank you Vi at Bentley for sponsoring and hosting our volunteers for this special recognition breakfast. The morning consisted of a presentation where we recognized and honored our 450 volunteers and their milestones. Additionally, the volunteers provided 30,000 hours of service in 2024 which equates to more than $1,000,000 in value of volunteer time.
The volunteer organization could not function without the hard work and dedication of the Connection Officers and Volunteer Coordinators. Thank you to our Connection Officers for your leadership, time and talents. Volunteer Coordinators truly go above and beyond for the Conservancy by taking on additional responsibilities. Many coordinators spend over 40 hours a week working with their teams.
Volunteer of the Year
This year we honored one of our volunteers, Bruce Robertson, as our volunteer of the year. Bruce has been a volunteer at the Conservancy for more than 20 years, volunteering at the von Arx Wildlife Hospital since 2004. He has passionately worked 3,100 volunteer hours.
Bruce has worked on every single outdoor wildlife rehabilitation enclosure, including completely rebuilding two new enclosures these last several years. The most recent rebuilds came in at a cost of $4,000 against what would have been $17,000 using outside vendors.
In the early days at the von Arx Wildlife Hospital, Bruce was involved in creating and building “skateboards” for some of the gopher tortoises that were unable to move. He also created and built hammocks for the raccoons.
More recently, Bruce put his carpentry and woodworking skills to work, designing and building the special recognition plaque to John and Dorothy Blair at the new Environmental Education Dormitory that was funded by Jeannie and Christopher B. Smith.
He also built a bar for our RedSnook Catch & Release Charity Tournament Kick-Off party, as well as 18 display walls for Magic Under the Mangroves. Bruce also built a special bar/service area in the Susan & William Dalton Discovery Center and the John & Carol Walter Discovery Wing for the board reception recognizing John and Carol Walter and the John and Carol Walter Family Foundation for their transformative $25,000,000 gift to the Conservancy.
But Bruce didn’t stop there. Most recently, he built a beautiful leading natural edge conference table for the conference room in the Environmental Studies Dormitory. Nine times out of ten, when you call Bruce, he is either on campus, coming to campus, or just left campus. Thank you Bruce for your compassion, dedication and service since 2004!
If you would like to become a volunteer and join the team, please see our website to apply.
