Metro Parks has been trying to better capture the number of volunteer hours spent in the park district through the Chip-in program, coaching, teen volunteering, event volunteering and all the many other volunteer opportunities.
The stats are incredible.
Total Hours volunteered
2009: 121,013
2010: 156,147
2011: 176,298
That's right. Last year more than 176,000 hours were donated to the park district.
Let me put that another way: in 1 year, volunteers donated 20 years worth of their time to Metro Parks.
We estimate the value of the time donated as $3.7 million.
I think there a lot of takeaways from this:
- People love their parks!
- They donate their time when they feel like it will be valued and worthwhile.
- Metro Parks couldn't provide the level of service we do without our volunteers.
I'm so impressed and so grateful for all that volunteers have done.