A book proposal and manuscript for "being where you are"
(Book - Regular Print)

Thesis,MSES,Green Mountain College,2013

Includes bibliographical references.

The word "volunteer" is defined as "a person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking" or "a person who performs a service willingly and without pay." Environmental organizations rely heavily on local volunteers from all walks of life, spanning the spectrum of age, race, class and ethnicity. These people are widely different but are unified in their desire to give back to their community, their towns or cities, or their planet. This project seeks to answer a number of important questions related to volunteers, specifically those who give their time and effort to conservation organizations. Through the stories of these volunteers, I have examined and perhaps even answered some of the essential questions including: What makes volunteers care about or connect to a place and want to work towards protecting or preserving it? What are the motivating factors when it comes to volunteering? What kinds of values, beliefs or attitudes motivate environmental volunteering specifically? What problems are environmental volunteers solving? What kinds of short and long term impacts occur as a result of environmental work? For this project, I have gone beyond simply asking these questions and analyzing the answers in a quantitative way. After concluding a number of in-person interviews, I have assembled the tales of environmental volunteers into a book-length manuscript designed to relate these stories in an easy to read, accessible way. I will pursue publication of this book, in an effort to share the important stories of volunteers in a way that educates readers about the essential work of environmental volunteers and hopefully inspires them to volunteer for environmental organizations of their own region.