As volunteer coordinator for the World Bird Sanctuary it is my pleasure each year to present the volunteer of the year award. This year was special because the staff
and senior management nominated and chose my dear friend Jena Baumgarten!
Jena became a volunteer in
December 2005. At the time she
answered our application question, “Why do you want to volunteer at WBS?” by
saying, “To learn about the different types of birds you have and to be able to
educate the public.” She has certainly
accomplished what she set out to do, and then some! In her eight years with WBS she has logged 2129.5 hours
helping the birds!
As an education volunteer
Jena regularly assists our staff with presenting programs around St. Louis and
surrounding areas as well as traveling on overnight, out of town trips.
Due to the amount of time
Jena has put in over the years and the experience she has gained, she is one of
a handful of volunteers that we ask to be “chick in charge” for displays and
small programs. This basically
means that as a volunteer Jena goes out with another volunteer and carries the
responsibility of a staff person at a raptor display. She can also regularly be found giving tours of World Bird
Sanctuary.
Jena’s time does not end
with programs. She also assists me
with our volunteer program, helping me with orientations to get new volunteers
started. This past summer she also
ran our volunteer program for eight weeks while I was out on maternity
leave--fielding emails, running orientations, and checking up on new volunteers
to see how things were going. She
loves to spread her excitement and love of WBS to anyone she encounters.
Jena has also done an
amazing job of getting her family involved. She regularly brings family and friends to WBS, as well as
giving a Return to the Wild as gifts for her family (a Return to the Wild
allows a person who donates money to WBS to release a bird to the wild that WBS
rehabilitated). In addition she is
regularly getting her husband involved by helping us with in-kind car part
donations to keep our fleet of aging vehicles up and running.
The dictionary describes a
volunteer as one who voluntarily gives of their time and resources without
expectation of compensation or reward.
Jena and all our volunteers certainly fit that description.
Submitted by Teri Graves,
World Bird Sanctuary Volunteer & Special Events Coordinator
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