61,583 hours
Amount of time our 663 adult volunteers served last year. This is the equivalent of nearly 31 full-time employees.
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| Feeding an anaconda takes patience. | Photo: Arturo Gossage |
18 departments
Number of departments in which volunteers serve across the Aquarium, including animal husbandry, administration, research, conservation and visitor experience—in locations across the greater Boston area.
222 volunteers
Number of new volunteers who joined our community last year.
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| Volunteers help with food prep, a crucial part of every day at the Aquarium. Photo: Arturo Gossage |
3 years
Average length of time our volunteers have served at the Aquarium. The longest length of time a volunteer has served with the Aquarium? 43 years and 10 months!
(See tomorrow’s post to find out who!)
180 volunteers
Number of volunteers who donated their time and skills to help rehabilitate sea turtles during this record-breaking season—for a total of 11,805 hours!
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| An intern helps carry a rescued loggerhead sea turtle. |
114 volunteers
Number of Visitor Education volunteers in 2012 who donated a total of 11,629 hours of their time to engage visitors and teach them about our blue planet (one of the missions of the Aquarium). This is especially helpful during the ongoing GOT reconstruction project.
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| Some longtime volunteers actually don wetsuits to help feed the animals. Photo: Arturo Gossage |
196 hours
The average number of hours each of our 42 marine mammal volunteers spent taking care of Sierra, Reggae, Isaac and the rest of the marine mammal gang in 2012!
It is clear that the Aquarium would not have the capacity to do all of our amazing work without our enthusiastic and talented volunteers. In the coming days and weeks, we are excited to bring you more stories about the volunteers behind these numbers!
Which stories behind these numbers are YOU interested in knowing more about?
Being a volunteer at the NEAq is one of the greatest things I've ever done in my life. If I still lived in the Boston area I would still be a volunteer!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your service! So glad that you're still part of the online Aquarium family, too.
DeleteI only began volunteering with NEAQ last year....I love it....I only wish I knew about the opportunity sooner! Great organization!
ReplyDeleteWe're so glad to have you on our team. Thank you for all your help!
DeleteWithout our dedicated volunteers, we wouldn't be able to carry out our mission. Thank you all so much!
ReplyDeleteVolunteers are unsung heroes. It’s good to know that there are a lot of volunteers helping out at the aquarium. BTW, I thought these aquariums are run similar to businesses which generate income. Can’t they pay for regular employees?
ReplyDelete