Hi guys and gals,
It's fast approaching the end of the summer season here at South Stack, so with only two weeks of residential volunteers left we thought we'd take the opportunity to tell you a little bit about what our volunteers have been up to all summer!
With the opening of our new visitor centre we've needed more help than ever and volunteers Mo and Eveline are now on the shop's rota as it's been all hands to the deck with popularity of our shop and cafe. We've had various events throughout the summer, such as our Centenary birthday party, Puffin Fun Weekend, Springwatch Weekend, Moth Morning, various Guided Walks and a stand at the Anglesey show which have all gone ahead because of the suberb commitment of our local and residential volunteers.
We currently have twelve local volunteers who between them have already given us a staggering 1340 hours this year! That has involved work on opening the new visitor centre, staffing the shop and cafe, people engagement down at Ellin's Tower and also inside the visitor centre and around the reserve.
This morning we waved goodbye to Janet and Sarah which brought us to a grand total of 38 residential volunteers for the summer and still have 4 to come! Wow! Everyone of them has contributed so much to the running of this reserve and therefore the conservation of the wildlife we have here. As well as assisting in the visitor centre and Ellin's Tower our residential volunteers have been involved in event organisation, guided walks, litter picking and general up-keep of the reserve.
Most of our residential volunteers will be applying to return, but there will be some spaces for next summer so if you are interested please see http://www.rspb.org.uk/volunteering/residential.aspx. Also, we're hoping to have some long-term and short-term residential volunteers over the winter this year so please get in touch if that's something that interests you; it's likely that there'll be more outdoors work involved, but it's worth contacting us directly to finalise that.
Massive thanks to all the volunteers who have kept us running this year - we couldn't do it without you!
Kathy and everybody here at South Stack x