Service Learning Reflection - J.B Starkey Park Wilderness Foundation in New Port Richey, FL

My service learning experience did not start off as what I had hoped. On my first day I was assigned clerical duties. I was to cut parking passes, label the dates on them and then put each on into an individual envelope. There were about 800 passes for this to be done to. After I had completed I had to put together 6 pages that are to be filled out daily by the front office, date and staple the pages together. All I wanted to do was be outside working in the cabins and in the forest.

I soon realized that what I was dong was beneficial to the park. Bottom line is there is paperwork to for everything. If I had not completed that someone else would have had to and if nobody did then the park would had lost money. I learned that the county recently implemented a two dollar fee to park. This money goes to new equipment, gas and supplies to build new cabins and host events for the park.

On my second day I got to get my hands dirty. I decided to try a morning shift to see what has to be done at an earlier time. The park opened at 6am and I was there right on time. I saw a couple deer galloping through the open trail and a very few fire bugs. Campers were lined up at the gate by 6:30am. We let them in and we waited for a little bit at the entrance to patrol the traffic. I found it hard to believe that everyone obeyed the speed limits.

We went to work on the cabins after everyone was inside. The main thing when cleaning the cabins is to make sure all the cobwebs are swept away in the bathrooms and there are no cigarette butts outside or on the walkways. We watch for butts all the time and there are people on patrol for smokers night and day. Even the visitors that walk their dogs or run and bike in the trails report people smoking too. It gives me hope that there are people out there that have a love for nature like I have.

On the third day I had a lot of downtime and was allowed to go on ‘trash duty’. Trash duty is what they give you when there is nothing too major to do. I took this as an opportunity to take photos of the animals. I saw two black cats that were so cute (you could clearly tell they were lovers) and another gopher turtle. These turtles were everywhere! When passing through the field by the entrance there are about five always out in the open grazing. I loaded these photos below!

It was an overall great experience to help out and see how the maintenance of a park works. Colloquium has shown me the inner workings of a park along with the educational aspects that the public usually seeks to find besides a nice jog and some tranquility. I loved working at J.B Starkey Park Wilderness Foundation in New Port Richey, FL!