Group volunteer events comprise the majority of GIVE 365's park stewardship workdays and are instrumental in helping maintain Ann Arbor's parks! They provide great opportunities for teambuilding and community engagement!
If you're part of a group, be it a business, fraternity, sorority, community organization, or other, and interested in planning a volunteer event with GIVE 365, please fill out our Group Volunteer Inquiry Form. Through the form, let us know your group's availability and project interests and the GIVE 365 team will plan an impactful workday based on your preferences, staff availability, and current park priorities. We promise to reach out within two business days of your form submission to start coordinating the event! Please note that we can't typically accommodate groups larger than 25 at one park. In some cases, if the group is willing, we can add additional locations and projects to accommodate larger groups.
For volunteer opportunities in our off season (November through March), reach out to
[email protected] to find out what may be available for your group. We may be able to accommodate your group, but we are much more limited in project opportunities and staff availability.
For more information on workday planning, volunteering, and our overall workday culture, visit our "Preparing for your Service Day" webpage. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] with any questions. Group volunteer season runs April through October.
Facility Maintenance and Beautification
There are many facilities that need support with weeding, planter bed maintenance, and sometimes painting. We love to watch volunteers transform a space from "in need" to "looks cared for"!
Playground Woodchip Spreading
A necessary and labor intensive job is providing the muscle needed to spread piles of woodchips (specially engineered for playgrounds) into the play area for added depth to the safety surfacing. It is hard work but our volunteers take much satisfaction in seeing the results. Below you can see that around 6 inches of safety surfacing has been added to these playgrounds. There are almost 80 playgrounds here in our city and our volunteers do an amazing job supporting the efforts to keep them all up to par!
Before After
Park Clean Ups
This can be a variety of tasks or a combination of anything on this page, but often entails trash picking, weeding, and any general beautification.
Rain Garden Maintenance
Rain gardens needs lots of care to keep them functioning as designed. Volunteers get their hands dirty removing invasive plant growth and tending to this valuable and environmentally conscience garden that adds a beautiful gardenscape while diverting storm water.
Painting and Stenciling
Oh, the difference some paint can make! Our volunteers are amazing at beautifying areas using paint! We identify graffiti prone areas and even have begun working on park bathrooms to transform the space into something more welcoming. We provide the stencils and paint colors and the volunteers always bring the creativity. No painting experience necessary although paint projects are geared for groups ages 18 and older. Paint projects can only be completed between 35-90 degrees and when there is low precipitation. Please note that there are limited painting projects available each season.
Group Painting Information
River Clean Ups
Each summer we take groups of volunteers onto the Huron River to help clean up trash that accumulates in and along the river. These trips are funded by a grant from the Michigan DEQ so volunteers do not have to pay for boat rentals. Groups can boat from Argo livery to Gallup livery, which takes about 3 hours, or can spend 1 or 2 hours in the area of river surrounding either livery. Volunteers pair up in a canoe with a trash picker in hand to retrieve trash. And yes, it is as fun as it sounds. These clean ups can accommodate groups of 6 to 20 people. Our program runs June through September, view the
River Clean-Ups page for more information.
River Clean Up Group Information
