On any given day the penguin exhibit can have up to 6 volunteers helping us out, which adds up to over 40 volunteers coming in each week. During the last year our penguin volunteers logged 13,000 hours. You will find Aquarium volunteers helping out in almost every department —from animal husbandry, to visitor education and even our volunteer office! The total number of hours donated by all Aquarium volunteers is 100,250. That is the equivalent of one person working an 8 hour day, five days a week for 48 years!




Some volunteers are students who want to gain experience in the animal husbandry field, some are retirees looking for something interesting to do, and all are passionate about the oceans and the animals that live in it.



Each year we set aside a night to show all our volunteers how much we appreciate all the hard work they put in at the Aquarium each week. At the Volunteer Appreciation Night the volunteers are treated with good food, music, and raffle prizes.


Snacks for all! (photo credit Megan Sampson)


Giving out prizes. (photo credit Michelle Semler)


What a pair of winners!

We also highlight volunteers who have obtained volunteering milestones. Here are some photos of some of our volunteers that received awards for volunteering over 1000 hours.


Karen is all smiles accepting her award from Aquarium president Bud Ris (left) and another long-time Aquarium volunteer. (photo credit: Megan Sampson)


Kim (photo credit: Megan Sampson)


Sarah (photo credit: Megan Sampson)


Anthony (photo credit: Michelle Semler)

This is Marcia H.


Photo credit: Megan Sampson

She has been a volunteer at the Aquarium since 1985, splitting her time between the Education and Penguin departments, and logging 9,711 hours! All of her hours educating the public has paid off as Marcia gives one of the best penguin presentations around!



The Volunteer Appreciation Night is always a great event. Our volunteers work so hard throughout the year and deserve a night to be recognized and have some fun.

-Andrea

Over the past few months we have talked a lot about the penguins at the New England Aquarium (that is, African, rockhopper and little blue penguins), but you can't forget the group of staff and volunteers that take care of all the penguins each day. So, how many people does it take to take care of the penguin exhibit?


Our food prep room crowded with volunteers and staff getting the penguins' food ready for the first feeding of the day.

It takes a whole team of staff, interns and volunteers to care for our penguins and their exhibit every single day of the week. From twice-daily feedings to scrubbing the rock islands to vacuuming the floors, there's a lot to do! So on any given day, you'll find at least two staff members plus up to another six volunteers wading in the penguin exhibit.


Scrubbing and rinsing the rock islands


Feeding the penguins, bon appetit! Note the clipboard in the foreground used to keep notes on how much fish each bird eats.

To be a penguin volunteer you must be at least 18 years old and able to come in once a week for at least six months, this is to give you enough time to learn all the birds' names (our readers have met a lot of our penguin pals already!) and pick up the skills needed to take care of them. Our volunteers work side by side with the staff for all the daily chores from food preparations and doing laundry to cleaning the exhibit and feeding the penguins.


Vacuuming the penguin exhibit


Cleaning the underside of one of the rock islands

Stay tuned to meet penguin staff members Heather, Paul, Caitlin and Andrea.

To learn more about how to become a volunteer, click here. And very soon you can learn what it is like to volunteer in the penguin exhibit, straight from one of our very own volunteers.

We could not be able to take care of the 85-plus penguins if it wasn't for the great group of people who come in day after day, week after week to help us take care of the penguins.