Trekkers Reaches Over 200 Volunteers

Thomaston, Maine - Trekkers’ youth-mentoring organization would like to thank all the volunteers who gave their time during the 2012-13 program year. With a community of adult volunteers working throughout the year, Trekkers provides a myriad of educational, experiential, and cross-cultural opportunities for young people.  These opportunities are made possible because of the generous individuals who volunteer their time and talent to support Trekkers’ mission.

Trekkers offers grade-specific core programs and many peripheral programs, all of which include volunteer opportunities for adults and student leaders. From September to August, 243 student and adult volunteers served 11,236.75 hours in support of the organization!  This is a 30% increase when compared to the previous year’s statistics and a 5% increase in the number of hours served. The programs with the highest
number of volunteer hours were the 8th grade expeditions (with a total of 1,824 volunteer hours) and the 7th grade expeditions (with a total of 1,534 volunteer hours).

In addition to helping with programs and expeditions, volunteers also supported Trekkers by tutoring, helping with fundraising events and assisting with administrative tasks such like getting newsletters prepared for mailing. As Trekkers starts its twentieth year of serving local youth, the entire staff is grateful for the support they have received from the community.

Commenting on these new results, Trekkers’ Executive Director Don Carpenter stated that, “Our community’s dedication to Trekkers and to the youth we serve has helped our organization achieve its mission. Compared to the original Trekkers’ model, we now serve 50% more students from twice as many communities with three times the volunteer support. We are so grateful for the volunteer spirit that exists here. We couldn’t do this work without our volunteers.”

The Trekkers model was built upon the principle that programs don’t change lives, relationships do.  Following this philosophy, one of the organization’s main priorities is to connect young people with caring adults through experiential learning, community service and adventure-based education.  As Trekkers continues to expand and serve more students, the need for caring adult volunteers is increasing.  If you would like to be a volunteer at Trekkers, please call the office at 594-5095. For more information about volunteer opportunities, visit www.trekkers.org.