Ocala, Florida Rainy 70 Degrees
Yesterday afternoon, during a happy hour gathering with our neighbors, one of them posed the question, “So, what’s the draw of work camping?”. The answer is multi-faceted. Our answer, in the moment only scratched the surface of the true ‘draw’ of work camping. I’ve been mulling it ever since. Most of the year we are in parks where we are volunteering with other like-minded full-timers. Birds of a feather as they say. This winter is different. Our volunteer gig for the winter imploded and we have found ourselves in a long-term situation with people who do not workcamp anywhere. Most don’t even know what it is about. They are either retired snow birds who have come here to escape cold weather in their home state, or they are full-time RV’ers who travel about and stay in private RV resorts as they explore our beautiful country. Many have never spent a night in a Corps of Engineers Park, and don’t even know what we mean when we say, ‘Corps Park’. A sad thing to me. A few have spent time in a State Park but for the most part the folks we are with this winter frequent private RV parks and travel like tourists. There is nothing wrong with that scenario for some people, it all depends on your expectations of how one experiences an area. Needless to say, couples like us are something of a curiosity to others, when we do hunker down in a private park occasionally. We are enjoying the opportunity to share our experiences with RV'ers who have never workcamped. Who knows, maybe someone will get inspired and check it out. The life of a workcamper is a very rewarding one for sure.
Back to the question. There are several things that draw us
to the life of being workcampers.
#1. The main draw is the economy of the life. When you workcamp you typically trade about 25 hours a week of time and talent for the use of a FHU site and the utilities. In some cases, we are provided with laundry facilities. I have to qualify this here. We seek out jobs at Federal and State Parks. Often our sites are the only ones with full hook ups. The sites are usually spacious, not the grid style compact sites that exist in private parks. We have yet to volunteer at a private park, but may try it next winter.
#2. You have to do something. Even in retirement years people are happiest when they are busy. When you live in your RV and travel around you give up many things that fill your days. No yard to groom, big house to maintain, garage to work in etc. Many people stayed busy with social activities, like church, service group activities, clubs and the like. Work camping gives us an outlet to stay busy using our hobbies, passions and skills for the benefit of the park we are working for. There is a stucture and routine to a workcampers day and week that keeps us motivated and feeling useful. It gives us a social network of people who share our interests. Simply put, it gives us some resemblance of our former brick and mortar lives.
#3. Work camping allows you to really get to know an area.
When you workcamp for a park you gain an in-depth knowledge of the area. It’s
part of your job. A person experiencing an area for a couple of weeks as a
tourist can never begin to learn what a workcamper learns about an area through
the course of their volunteer work. Not only does a workcamper get access to
areas, not open to the public, they also have at their disposal the knowledge
of those who work there, often rangers, biologists and other scientists who
make their career managing the parks and wild life areas where workcampers volunteer.
Work camping presents opportunities to nurture new and old hobbies and
interests. Work camping also presents endless opportunities to do new exciting
things as needs arise. Especially if you volunteer at a Wildlife Refuge or
National Forest. Workcampers are not only lending their talents and skills to
parks in exchange for a site to occupy for an extend period of time, we are
continually learning new things and growing as individuals.
#4. Giving makes you happy.
Many people who workcamp were involved in community outreach programs
and volunteered their time to organizations in their former lives. Work camping
and giving back is highly satisfying. When your skills and passions result in
elevating the experience of those visiting the area where you volunteer, a warm
fulfilling sense of satisfaction arises in your inner self. It feels good to
give.
#5 People. When you work with others toward the mutual goal of making a place nice to visit you get to know them on a level unlike any other connection you will make with people you meet on the road. Partly because you are together for at least 90 days, partly because you are working together. Visiting with neighbors in a leisure park is fulfilling in its own way. But you will never experience the depth of the connection you develop with those you work with for a season in a park. Workcampers nurture each other. It comes in many forms, maybe a volunteer companion helps you learn a new hobby. If one of us is in their home area, we share the company of our family members and friends. Workcampers tend to seek each other out as we travel about. If someone is in the area, we make plans to meet. The other volunteers we are with get to meet the other gypsy friends and compare notes about the life. Volunteers often coordinate future jobs specifically to have to opportunity to work and live together again.
In a nutshell the draw is a sense of community, satisfaction
of being a part of what makes a place nice to visit, the growth that comes from
the new experiences and the ability to kick off your shoes and stay awhile.
Until next time…
To learn more about volunteering for federal parks go to http://www.volunteer.gov
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