McHenry County offers a volunteer opportunity perfectly suited to the interests of environmentally conscious teens. The McHenry County Conservation District, headquartered at Glacial Park in Ringwood, uses teenage volunteers to help with birdfeeder-building workshops and educational programs for children.
”The district was set up with three purposes in mind: preservation, education and recreation,” said Katherine Beall, education program coordinator for the district.
When she can locate teenage volunteers, she`ll use them. ”The more I can find, the happier I`ll be,” she said. Ideally, she`d like to hear from volunteers like the one who contacted her last fall.
”I got a call from a high school student named Paul Van Antwerp last September,” Beall recalled. ”He liked coming out to Glacial Park and wanted to know if there was some way he could help the conservation district. We got him started helping out with the birdfeeder-building workshop, and then he organized three friends of his to volunteer, too.”
Today, Van Antwerp and his friends are key volunteers in the district`s Toddles Program, designed to help preschoolers and their parents become involved in the environment. The teens demonstrate how to build birdfeeders and collect seeds, and also educate the youngsters about trees, glacial features and wildlife.
Why did Van Antwerp get involved?
”I love that place (Glacial Park),” he said. ”And I respected the work of Kath Beall and the conservation district.”
But more important were memories of his younger days, when he lived in the near northwest suburbs and spent many happy hours riding his bike in a forest preserve near his home. After he moved with his family to Wonder Lake and was introduced to Glacial Park, he said, ”I realized how disgustingly polluted that forest preserve was, and that concerned me. I didn`t want Glacial Park to turn out that way.”
Van Antwerp, 16, a junior at McHenry West High School in Wonder Lake, believes it`s actually trendy to be involved in conservation and environment these days. ”And it`s the greatest trend we`ve ever had,” he said. ”But it goes beyond trends for me. It`s a personal thing.”
His work for the McHenry County Conservation District has led Van Antwerp to volunteer his services to the Student Conservation Association`s High School Program. This summer, he hopes to be a part of that program, helping reconstruct nature trails and restore bridges at Nez Perce National Historical Park in central Idaho.
