Invest your time and talent in the areas that interest you most - horticulture, education, operations, public relations and special events, development or administration.
Volunteers were instrumental in the development of the garden and continue to play a major role. More than 600 volunteers help keep the Garden running in a variety of ways. If you're interested in volunteering, please call the Garden at (804) 262-9887 ext. 335 or send an email to volunteers@lewisginter.org.
What do you get from volunteering?
As a volunteer at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden you get respect because we listen to your ideas. The memorandum of understanding establishes a good relationship between the Garden and its volunteers. As a volunteer you also receive training, learning opportunities, recognition for all of the time you give to the garden and more!
What is it like to be a volunteer at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden?
As a volunteer you have a choice in your work. You get to choose what you do, how much you do, where you work and your level of responsibility. Below you will see a list of volunteer opportunities. Feel free to take a look at the opportunities and contact the Garden by calling (804) 262-9887 ext. 335 or sending an email to volunteers@lewisginter.org if you would like to volunteer or if you have any questions.
Volunteer Opportunities
Admissions
- Admissions Host/Hostess: Greet visitors, hand out brochures, check for admission stickers, count visitors (clicker counter), and answer general questions.
- Admissions Receptionist: Answer incoming calls and answer questions about directions to the Garden, admission prices, and special events; direct incoming calls to appropriate staff.
Education
- Garden Guide: Garden Guides attend monthly meetings to learn more about the Garden. They lead scheduled tours through the Garden and Conservatory and also serve as roving interpreters. Trainees attend special training sessions in winter and spring and participate in "shadow tours" with veteran guides before leading tours on their own.
- Education Information Assistant: Help fill brochure holders in the garden, library and Visitors Center. This involves strolling through the Garden to make sure holders are filled with appropriate brochures (for the Conservatory, Healing Garden, and Bird Trail) and with rack cards (for Education classes, lectures, tours).
- Bird Trail Volunteer: Part of a committee whose activities include: filling and cleaning bird feeders, monitoring and maintaining wooden directional markers, and also monitoring the bluebird houses in the spring.
- Garden Cart Volunteer: Educate the public about the topic of the month (for example: orchids, soil amendments, butterfly gardening or organic gardening.) Volunteers receive information on the relevant topic and training from the education program assistant before staffing the Garden Cart.
- Registration and Logistics Assistant: Assist with registration and logistics at large public programs. Volunteers assist the Education special programs team on an on-call basis with jobs related to major lectures and workshops.
- Children's Activities Assistant: Assist with children's activities on weekends during A Million Blooms and other special celebrations.
- Library Assistant: Shelving books, check for mis-shelved items, helping borrowers find books or journals, using the database to circulate materials (check-in, check-out), processing new books, addressing and mailing overdue notices, answering phone and email requests for gardening information, doing research related to visitor and caller questions, and processing plant and seed catalogs.
Horticulture
- General Horticulture Volunteer: Assist horticulturists and gardeners in maintaining the individual gardens within Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden.
- Greenhouse Assistant: Assist the greenhouse coordinator in maintaining the greenhouse and its production areas, including the mum field and the hoop houses.
- Plant Drying Volunteer: Gather and preserve plant material, primarily for GardenFest decorations.
- Plant Records Volunteer: Assist the plant records coordinator in producing accession and visitor plant labels as well as participating in the day to day activities related to maintaining the Microsoft Access plant records database.
- Conservatory Volunteer: Assist the conservatory coordinator and Conservatory Gardener in maintaining the facility for appropriate presentation level to the public.
Office/Clerical
- Volunteer Office Recruiting Assistant: Enter/Update any newly active volunteers, volunteer prospects, or volunteer applicants and their contact information into the VolunteerWorks database; update status changes accordingly throughout the recruiting/placement process; set up interviews, and assist with orientations.
- Volunteer Administrative Assistant- Business Office: Working at the direction of the director of administrative services on administrative and clerical tasks/projects.
- Development Volunteer: Assist in bulk mailings that promote LGBG and other clerical duties.
- Education Data Entry Assistant: Entering lists of names and other data into Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets (in the Education office). In the Children's Garden, need one volunteer to enter data regarding the Discovery Program tours into Vista (facilities management/scheduling software).
- Education Office Volunteer: Assist with general office work and information distribution. Help with copying, addressing envelopes, counting rack cards, stuffing envelopes.
Special Events (Mostly evenings or weekends throughout the year)
- General Special Events Volunteer: Involves a number of different jobs/assignments that are available depending on the event. Events include: A Million Blooms, Groovin' in the Garden, and GardenFest of Lights.
Weekend Opportunities (Please see descriptions above)
- Admissions Host/Hostess
- Admissions Receptionist
- Children's Activities Assistant
- Conservatory Volunteer
- Garden Guide
- Garden Cart Volunteer
- Library Volunteer
- Special Events
Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden understands and appreciates how valuable a gift we get from all of our volunteers- time. Without our volunteers, LGBG could not offer to the community all of the knowledge and beauty that the Garden represents. For that reason, we would like to say THANK YOU for your interest.
