Volunteers Needed at Great Smoky Mountains’ Clingmans Dome

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recruiting volunteers to help staff the visitor contact station at Clingmans Dome on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from August 28 through December 1, 2015.

Volunteers will work at the seasonal information center that includes a bookstore/sales area managed by Great Smoky Mountains Association (GSMA). Volunteers will assist in educating visitors about the park and provide recreational and trip planning information and directions to other destinations.

“Volunteers staffing the station play an important role in enhancing the visitor experience to the dome,” said Superintendent Cassius Cash. “They provide visitors, through personal services rarely seen today in a world becoming more and more automated, the opportunity to appreciate the nuances of their high elevation visit through personal service.”

Volunteers will be working alongside GSMA employees. Each volunteer is asked to work at least one four-hour shift per week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Volunteers must be able to walk to Clingmans Dome Tower during the shift. The contact station sits at an elevation of 6,300 feet and is a point source of information on the national park, in general, and on this high elevation spruce-fir ecosystem in particular.

Interested persons will be provided orientation and training. New volunteers are required to attend training on Tuesday, August 18, 2015 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Oconaluftee Administration Building near Cherokee, N.C. To reserve a spot in the training or receive more information, please contact Park Resource Education Ranger Florie Takaki by phone at (828) 497-1906 or by email at florie_takaki@nps.gov.