Registration now open for May 16 furlough day of service

People on campus who love walking, jogging and biking through the Lakeshore Nature Preserve now have an easy opportunity to help maintain it.

During the community service day planned for the May 16 furlough day, volunteers will plant wildflowers and grasses in the eastern area of Bill’s Woods, near the Picnic Point entrance.

For Bryn Scriver, outreach specialist and volunteer coordinator for the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, having the help of volunteers is critical. It’s as much about building awareness among faculty and staff as getting important work done, she says.

“We have a very small staff, we have 300 acres to manage and we definitely need more hands make the work lighter,” Scriver says. But “the more people know about this the better, because the more willing they’ll be to care for it and want to protect it and keep it this wonderful resource for students and the community alike.”

For a second year, a group of academic and classified staff is working to organize the day of service, which grew out of a resolution passed by the Academic Staff Assembly. It encouraged academic staff to consider volunteering during the 16 unpaid days that all state employees were required to take under the two-year state budget that ends on June 30.

Last year, more than 200 people took part in community service projects across Dane County, including more than a dozen who planted shrubs in the same area of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve where volunteers will be working this year.

“There are many organizations throughout our communities doing great work,” says Heather Daniels, chair of the Academic Staff Executive Committee. “The UW–Madison Service Day is about UW–Madison employees spending a little bit of their time to help make some of this work happen.”

Those who want to participate this year may now sign up through the Office of Human Resource Development. Once registered, volunteers can access a database of available opportunities for the day through the United Way of Dane County and register for projects.

Two- or three-hour shifts are available at a variety of activities, including working at Lakeshore Nature Preserve, preparing prizes for the Madison Public Library summer reading program for young people and helping organize the Science Olympiad, among other opportunities.

Those who arrange their own volunteer work can also take part.

Students and postdoctoral fellows who may not be on furlough that day, as well as former UW–Madison employees and others in the university community, are also welcome if schedules permit their participation.