Refuge welcomes new resident volunteers
The J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge offers a Resident Volunteer program to help with its staff shortfalls. Volunteers receive space and hook-ups for their RVs in exchange for their hours spent helping with maintenance, education and visitor services. In April, the refuge welcomed Connie Guinn and Tumpy Lewis to the Education Team.
Guinn hails from Missouri and taught school at the elementary and middle levels for 28 years, with stints also teaching early childhood and adult education. Lewis grew up on the rivers, swamps and ocean in South Carolina. He started truck-driving in 1977 and retired in May. The two met at a parent-teacher conference when Guinn had Lewis’ son in her class. After buying their camper about two years ago, they started looking into work camping gigs and found the refuge’s Wildlife on Wheels positions.
“It looked like a great fit,” Lewis said. “And here we are. We really love the island, and all the people we have met so far. Looking forward to helping out, and having a great time here.”
“We were attracted to this volunteer position due to the fact that we both have previous experience in each of the fields they were searching for in a couple to fulfill, and this position is in beautiful sunny Florida. On an island,” Guinn said. “So far, we have really enjoyed learning about the native wildlife and the people of ‘Ding’ Darling have been so helpful and friendly.”