The Outdoor Campus: Can My Child Volunteer?

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In every issue of the ‘hood Magazine, we ask local experts questions that are helpful for our community! This Ask the Expert was printed in the March 2025 Issue of ‘hood. Check out the full digital issue at the link!

Question: Can my child volunteer at The Outdoor Campus?

Yes! The Outdoor Campus has a rich history of volunteerism, starting with 50 volunteers back in 1997. Since then, we have had over 1,200 volunteers give over 125,000 hours of service!

For youth volunteers, we ask that they be at least 12 years old and commit to 25 hours of service in a year.

Choosing to volunteer at the Campus means:

– Meeting new people with a similar interest in the outdoors

– Developing new skills and the opportunity to attend educational trainings

– Sharing your love of the outdoors with others

All Outdoor Campus Volunteers receive a uniform shirt and name tag and become part of our volunteer award program, which is based on service hours.

How do you get started?

All of our volunteers will be asked to submit an online application and complete a volunteer interview and orientation. The Outdoor Campus does have adult volunteers as well. All of our adult volunteers go through a background check prior to be accepted into the program.

Volunteering at the Outdoor Campus can be:

Assisting with educational classes
Helping with our front desk and greeting the public
Helping care for our educational animals

Our volunteers at the Outdoor Campus are crucially important to the work we do! They help us increase our service to the South Dakota public through providing free, outdoor education opportunities. If you are interested in volunteering with us, visit gfp.sd.gov/volunteer-toc-east/ to learn more or contact our Volunteer Coordinator Paige O’Farrell (605)-362-2728 or [email protected].