Orlando Science Center Volunteers Inspire Science Learning For Life!
Volunteer Appreciation Week may have been in April but we want to thank our devoted volunteers all year round for the amazing impact they have on everything we do! Despite the unusual circumstances we face surrounding COVID-19, Orlando Science Center volunteers continue to donate their time and energy to helping inspire science learning for life remotely. Volunteers are the backbone of the Orlando Science Center, and we would not be where we are today without their hard work, enthusiasm, and dedication.
Every day, Science Center volunteers make a connection with someone which will last a lifetime. Whether they are explaining Newton’s Laws in Kinetic Zone, performing a science-based magic trick to an audience, or helping out behind the scenes — volunteers are the driving force behind our mission to inspire science learning for life.
Over the past year, 2,075 individuals volunteered at Orlando Science Center. These include Event Volunteers, Collegiate Interns, Adult Volunteers, and Catalyst Youth Volunteers. Each team brings their own unique skillsets, experiences, and authenticity to their service. You’ve probably seen them around the building wearing their various colored T-shirts!
These volunteers donated a total of 58,084 hours within the last 12 months. That’s 2,420 days worth of service! In that amount of time, you could read Charles Darwin’s On The Origin Of Species 4,323 times if you read at an average of 250 words per minute. Because alligators have been recorded swimming upwards of 20 miles per hour, an alligator could swim over 1 million miles if it had 58,084 hours to do so (and if it never got tired)!
Orlando Science Center loves tracking data. It helps us define our goals, gives concrete perspective on our impact, and we also find it interesting and exciting! But data doesn’t truly get to the heart of what our volunteers do on a daily basis. Data has a hard time defining the joy on someone’s face when a volunteer helps them create something new. Data doesn’t always show the benefit of admin work completed by our volunteers behind the scenes. And it certainly doesn’t evoke the delight we get working every day with a wonderful team of volunteers.
Our volunteers are committed to making the world better able to tackle complex problems by thinking creatively and collaborating, and helping us move toward a more equitable future by striving for growth.
It is a privilege to work with so many dedicated, hardworking, and amazing volunteers. We hope you will join us in thanking them the next time you interact with someone! You can learn more about volunteering here.