Volunteer Opportunities
Assateague State Park offers many volunteer opportunities for a variety of people. Opportunities range from hosting in the campground, assisting with interpretive programs, or performing general park maintenance. No matter what the duties, our volunteers are an integral part of the park’s operations and we greatly appreciate the dedication of our fantastic volunteers.
Camp Hosts
The campground host program invites volunteers to experience camping a whole new way in the beautiful setting of Maryland State Parks. A campground host receives free camping in exchange for working to clean and maintain their assigned camping loop and bathhouse on a daily basis. Our hosts are a vital contact point between campground visitors and park staff and also operate our campground contact station. These dedicated volunteers are often found walking through their camping loops greeting visitors, answering questions, or reminding campers of park policies, in addition to cleaning and maintaining the camp loop bath house.
Hosts must provide a minimum of 28 hours of volunteer service per week. Hosting opportunities are offered from May through October for one-month assignments. No hook-ups are available at this time. Additional volunteer opportunities are available to hosts who show interest in helping out in other aspects of park operations, such as maintenance, Nature Center programs, or special events.
Interpretive Program Volunteers
The Nature Center at Assateague State Park is open April through October. We offer a wide range of programs to school groups, youth groups, and general park visitors, as well as special events and community outreach programs. Volunteer activities range from conducting programs for park visitors, feeding and care of education animals, facilitating scheduled environmental education programs to school and youth groups, and staffing our Nature Nook day-use exhibit area. Our interpretive program volunteers come from all age groups, high school through retirement, and invigorate the programs with excitement and knowledge of the outdoors and enthusiasm for working with youth.
Volunteer Rangers
Become a Volunteer Ranger and help protect Maryland's natural resources at beautiful Assateague State Park. The Volunteer Ranger Program is for people ages 18 and above who want to assist the park’s full-time staff with operations, programs and public service. Volunteers are trained and provided with uniforms for their jobs once they have completed 40 hours of volunteer service at the state park. A statewide orientation training helps rangers become acclimated to the state park operations. Additional training opportunities, that may include CPR, first aid, search and rescue, and trail stewardship, may be offered on a regional basis.
Native Plant Landscaping & Maintenance Volunteers
To assist in keeping Assateague State Park safe and beautiful for its visitors, many volunteers contribute to the maintenance of the island and mainland resources. Project needs include native plant landscaping at the park’s various garden plots, assistance with grounds-keeping, building maintenance, and dune maintenance. We also work with local community school groups, scouts, and other volunteers to aid us in keeping our park and the beach clean and beautiful for all visitors to enjoy. Although our state parks follow a trash free policy, often our visitors do not. We welcome groups interested in doing a good deed to help our environmental efforts while enjoying the park. The park will provide free trash bags to volunteers.
If you are interested in volunteering at Assateague State Park, please e-mail assateague.statepark@maryland.gov or call 410-641-2120 for more information.
