Cope Environmental Center – Centerville, Indiana

Hello everyone, I am Tommy Fordonski. I have been volunteering at Cope Environmental Center since last August. I became involved with Cope for volunteering through one of the high school class I take at Centerville Senior High School.

I decided to do my volunteering at Cope because I plan to attend Anderson University to major in Sports Marketing and have a minor in environmental science. Cope allows have me the ability to learn more about the environment and sustainability. Not only will this look awesome on my resume and college applications, but I will be more prepared entering college with already have done volunteering at an environmental center. Why did I decide to even start volunteering in the first place?

I am part of the National Honor Society at my school. We have a requirement of having to do ten hours of community service during the school year. This was another reason I picked Cope to be my place of volunteering. Do I like volunteering or do I hate it?

If I hated volunteering at Cope would I still be here writing this post for you guys to read?

I love being able to volunteer at Cope because not only do I get to be outside working, but I also get to enjoy the day. I volunteer at Cope for around three hours every other day during the week. I do many jobs around the Cope facility. For example, if a storm comes through the night before I will normally go check trails to see if any trees or limbs have fallen. Another example is watering the plants or cleaning out the baby snapping turtle’s aquarium. The only job I will not do at Cope is clean the snake tanks. I am terrified of snakes! Sometimes you get lucky and you get to watch Brent and Regan shoot rubbers at each other’s face. Regan is the volunteer coordinator at Cope. Regan is the person who gives me all the volunteer jobs to get done, so that the other workers at Cope can focus on their jobs. However, I have a very important reason on why I stay at Cope.

The most important factor in why I have kept volunteering at Cope for so long is the people. Everyday, I walk into the building and I am greeted by one of the employees. Normally, it is Regan because he is the first person I see. They all ask “how I’ve been” or  “Hey, Tommy!” This may seem important to you as a volunteer right now, but it will soon. These little conversations may not seem important, but it still means the people care about you. The little gestures go a long way to me. I hope you have enjoyed this little segment about me and my volunteering here at Cope Environmental Center!