Steve Weingarth has been volunteering at Schlitz Audubon for five years and he contributes to several areas, including home school education, summer camps, and Xtreme Raptor Day. He also engages with visitors on Sundays as a Nature Ambassador. He and his wife are both retired, and in addition to spending their time volunteering, enjoy traveling. This includes visiting grandkids in Minnesota, local destinations such as Door County, and going to distant places such as Europe. Steve lives in Germantown and his hobbies include photography and woodworking.
How did you come to volunteer at the Center?
In 2019, I started planning for my retirement from an engineering management role. My background was strong in math and science, but very weak in the natural sciences such as biology. I was encouraged by my wife to consider volunteering, and she told me about the Wisconsin Master Naturalist program. I participated in the 2019 WIMN class held at Schlitz Audubon and realized that being a nature-focused volunteer would allow me to start learning more about the natural world.
Why is volunteering at the Center important to you?
Volunteering at the Center fulfills a few of my retirement goals. It gives me an opportunity keep busy while helping make the Center a more rewarding place for the guests who visit, as well as the students and campers I interact with.
I have opportunities to continue learning, both from the educational activities I support and from researching guests’ questions that I don’t know the answer to.
Share a memorable volunteer experience:
This past summer, I volunteered for a summer camp called Naturalist in Training. This was a fun camp because the campers had a specific purpose – to research a topic and make a short presentation at the end of camp. It was fun to see the campers who took the task seriously and put time into the research. It was especially rewarding for me because I was able to be a resource for some of the campers because of my Master Naturalist training.
What is your favorite place, animal, plant, or activity at the Center and why?
Most of my time at the Center is spent volunteering. However, if I do come to the Center to visit, I enjoy walking through all the different habitats with my camera photographing the birds and other animals.
If you knew someone was thinking of volunteering at the Center, what would you tell them?
I’d tell them that there are many different volunteer opportunities at the Center. There are several that involve interacting with the visitors, including handling the front desk, giving raptor presentations, or acting as a Nature Ambassador or an education assistant. There are also rewarding roles that are more solitary, such as land stewardship or behind the scenes animal care. It is very easy to realize that the time you give is very beneficial to the success of the Center. Finally, I’d tell them that the staff they would volunteer with are a great group of people.
Thank you, Steve, for volunteering at Schlitz Audubon! We appreciate your dedication and enthusiasm, as well as that of all of our volunteers.
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