On June 7, First State National Historical Park hosted its first annual Volunteer Picnic & Award Ceremony. Superintendent Boles personally thanked the park’s VIPs (Volunteers-In-Parks) and handed out awards to honor a few of those who have gone above and beyond.

The park currently has 64 recurrent VIPs in the park who work in various capacities. These include but aren’t limited to: historical interpretation, trail management, stream stewardship, visitor safety, and visitor data collection. In Fiscal Year 2025, they contributed 4,000 hours of work, valued at $141,000. As our Superintendent put it, volunteers give the one thing they can’t get back: their time.

Needless to say, we are incredibly grateful to our VIPs for the time and care they show to our beautiful sites. We truly could not do it without them.

Closing in 6 Seconds