There’s Effigy Mounds National Monument in the northeast Iowa town of Harpers Ferry, but outside of that, Iowa has no big national parks that draw visitors from around the world.
Still, Iowans are encouraged to sign up to lend a hand during this National Volunteer Week through the National Park Service. The agency’s volunteer program manager Shari Orr explains what the effort is all about.
“National Volunteer Week was created many years ago by Points of Light,” Orr says, “and it was really just an opportunity to recognize the value and impact of volunteers across the country.” The week was established in 1974 and has grown exponentially each year, with thousands of volunteer projects and special events scheduled. “Our two internal goals for this week are to say ‘thank you’ to all of our current volunteers,” Orr says, “and to say ‘join us’ to folks who haven’t volunteered in a while or who have not yet volunteered with us.”
While volunteering is a way to give back to your community, for some, giving back is also a way to receive. Orr says if you’ve always wanted to visit a particular national park, say Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, or Yosemite, this could be your golden opportunity.
“People like to get involved in that special place in their community, but they also like to volunteer to those parks that they’ve dreamed about traveling to for their whole lives.” She encourages Iowans to search the National Park Service’s website NPS.gov and see what opportunities they find.
nps.gov