January WILDVolunteer Events

 

Family WILDVolunteer Day! – January 16, 1 pm – 4 pm.

 

Drop in on, January 16th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, from 1:00 – 4:00 PM to serve as a family, create kindness, and inspire others as part of Wildwood Park for the Art’s Family Volunteer Day!

Serve alongside Wildwood staff and AmeriCorps members as we prepare for our annual cultural festival, LANTERNS!  There is a job for everyone in the family! From preparing for LANTERNS!, our annual deep-winter festival celebrating 6 cultures from around the world, to helping keep the Park’s outdoor areas clean by removing plant debris and picking up litter, . Jobs may include raking leaves, creating luminaries  and decorating for this enlightening event.

Create your very own “Kindness Rock” to hide in the Park for others to discover.

While you volunteer, your younger school age students can hang out with Wildwood’s educational staff to create “Kindness Rocks!” by painting messages of kindness on rocks that will bring joy to others. Kindness Rocks began in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and are moving across the country as various organizations and schools are jumping on board! Kids can take their Kindness Rocks and hide them throughout Wildwood, their neighborhood, or other public places around Little Rock.
Be inspired by the future as you view interpretive Presidential Portraits & Inauguration Stands by 4th graders from Wildwood’s Arts-in-Education partner schools, Robinson Elementary School & Roberts Elementary School.

The student artwork on display at Wildwood is the result of five-day school residencies with Texarkana sculptor and Wildwood teaching artist Kay Thomas.  During her residency, Thomas worked with 4th grade students instructing them in basic 3D paper construction techniques as an arts integration approach to their humanities curriculum on U.S. presidents and the inaugural ceremony. The exhibit will be installed for viewing in the Galleries at Wildwood from January 9 to January 23. Families who visit the Park during Wildwood’s Family Volunteer Day on January 16, 2017, will have access to materials to create their own interpretative presidential portraits.

WILDVolunteer Happy Hour – January 9, 5;30 pm – 7 pm. 

Join us on Monday, January 9th anytime from 5:30-7:00 to learn more about the upcoming season’s volunteer opportunities and meet our new AmeriCorps group that will be with us in the New Year. Bring a friend (or two, or three, or more!) and enjoy a glass of wine, beer or hot chocolate and some yummy snacks. We’ll have volunteer sign-up sheets for upcoming events (including LANTERNS!), and we’ll be here to answer any questions you may have about volunteering. We’d love to know if you are planning to attend. RSVP, if you can, by emailing angela@wildwoodpark.org!

Thank you, Americorps Alpine 6!

Farewell, Alpine 6!

Alpine6Nabucco2016

Wildwood has been bustling with improvements January – February of 2016 thanks to nine Americorps team members, led by grounds manager David Pickens, facilities manager Ira Grace, and an elite crew from Central Arkansas Master Naturalists, the Nature Conservancy, Tom Tull Studios and Stageworks. Known as “The A Team” around Wildwood, Alpine 6  of NCCC Americorps’ Southwest Region provided more than 4500 hours of volunteer service to improve the Park and its amenities.

Here’s a condensed list of what Team Leader Brian Wegner, along with Haley, Maddy, Charles, Patrick, Tayla, Perry, Jessica and Waldemar accomplished:

  • Trailblazed the Wild 40, the Nature Trail, and the Ruth Allen Dogwood Trail
  • Landscaped park areas and refurbished multiple flowerbeds throughout the Butler Arboretum
  • Recovered 100+ lobby chairs
  • Built a new bridge and created a new rock dry bed for the Nabucco Waterfall in the Asian Woodland Garden
  • Attained Level A chainsaw status
  • Removed thousands of pounds of tree debris from Denny Road and the Wildflower Glen
  • Provided support for Wildwood’s Jr. Naturalist Camp
  • Inventoried properties and scenery and, outdoors, indigenous plantings throughout the Park
  • Painted the concessions stand and several restrooms
  • Built a volcano and decor for LANTERNS! Festival, and hosted more than 8000 guests with 350 volunteers

Thank you, A Team, for being part of Team Wildwood – may our paths meet again!