Project - In Depth

Out of every 7 people you meet working in the national parks, 6 are volunteers. This was one of many things that we learned while making this short documentary on volunteers at Mount Rainier National Park in Washington State. Natural disasters in 2006 devastated the park infrastructure, leaving park staff with the challenge of how to go about repairing it – and the huge number of people wanting to help.

The park management team’s response was fantastic. It created new programs and approaches, alliances with other conservation and wildlife groups, corporations and a much broader scope in the types of work volunteers all while dealing with hundreds of new people wanting to contribute. The new approaches resulted in an active, enthusiastic and deeply skilled volunteer community which helps to sustain the public’s interest in both the parks and volunteering in general.

This short film started out as a simple recognition piece for the annual volunteer picnic. The back story was too interesting to resist – how could we, with a former state seasonal park employee on our team and it happening in our own geographical back yard? Mount Rainier’s volunteer program manager, Ranger Kevin Bacher, is an avid photographer and his wonderful pictures form a big part of our story, which you can now see on the Mount Rainier web site under Support Your Parks.

This was our first film. While our style and skills have evolved since then the message remains as current as ever. It led us onto new adventures of our own in the national parks as we work with people such as our narrator, Ranger Shelton Johnson, and seeing some truly awe-inspiring scenery on the way.

If you’d like to volunteer, even 2-3 hours makes a difference. Go to the “Support Your Parks” section on any park website and check out the opportunities there.  For more information on locating a national park near you, visit: nps.gov and for information on Mount Rainier National Part, visit: nps.gov/mora

We’d like to express our appreciation to the members of the National Park Service and volunteers who were so generous with their time and allowed us to use some of the pictures you'll see in the film

Note: Three Moon Bay L.L.C. donates its time and services to several causes it believes in. While the National Park Service cannot endorse commercial enterprises such as ours, they have authorized the use of these films as examples of our work.

• Client: The National Park Service
• Project Type: Short Film
• Project Date: 2010