Hi! We're Shar and Phil
Phil retired from the Navy after a 36 year career. Shar retired from Insurance and Finance. After years of doing humanitarian and volunteer work in our careers, we found ourselves unfulfilled in our daily lives. We wanted to travel, but wanted to do it with purpose. One day Shar said, “Let’s take a year to volunteer,” and the A Year to Volunteer project was born.
We plan to visit and volunteer in each state and volunteer for a total of at least 365 days! We find people, places, charities, cities, communities etc, that need help, then we solicit volunteers to give us a hand via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. We don’t limit our projects to just RVers though, we encourage folks in the area and ask them to join in with us as well!
COMPLETED TO DATE:
182 work days
16,979 volunteer hours
10 states
GOAL: fifty365
So far we've completed projects in Florida, Texas, Alabama, South Dakota, Indiana, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Montana, and Wyoming. Next stop Nebraska.
See our upcoming projects below!
If you would like to join us on a project send an email to ayeartovolunteer@gmail.com
Victoria Springs State Recreation Area
May 24 - June 9
Anselmo, NE
This is Nebraska State Parks Centennial Year, so what better thing to do than give one of their first parks a facelift. We'll be installing a new playground structure and trail marking signage, removing brush and other woody debris, remodeling and repurposing a break room and storage facility, cleaning and repairing a school house, and landscaping the natural springs area.
Past Projects
Wyoming
Sinks Canyon State Park
At this beautiful park we built and cleared a trail, filled and leveled tent sites, cleaned and stained the visitor center, built a fence and about 10 other things!
Montana
Bannack State Park
At this incredible historic ghost town we replaced 1000 linear feet of boardwalk, cleaned 35 buildings, removed graffiti from 10 buildings, repaired the porch and roof of Ovitt's store and replaced the steps of the hotel.
Tennessee
Fall Creek Falls, Paris Landing and David Crockett Birthplace
Tennessee is the Volunteer State so we decided to do 3 park projects here! We built bridges, cleared trails and painted buildings at Fall Creek Falls. At Paris Landing we renovated an entire group camp that was previously used as a Girl Scout Camp. Last but not least at David Crockett Birthplace we built an amphitheater, bridge, fence, and a trail, cleared the river bank, landscaped the entrance sign, and made 88 signs!
Georgia
Stephen C Foster State Park
At this beautiful park in the middle of the Okafenokee Swamp we made many repairs to the Eco-Lodge, painted buildings, built walls, built camphost sites, wired bathrooms for heaters, striped the parking lot, and many other much needed maintenance items!
South Carolina
Wild Hearts Equine Therapy Center
We came here to do 3 main things. 1) Move pasture and property line fences. 2) Clear and beautify the meditation trail. 3) Build the sensory trail. We did those things but we also, built a new 80x60 arena and mounting station, put siding on 3 horse stalls, painted the tool shed, painted the exterior of the office, insulated, hung bead board on ceiling and walls, tiled floors and painted the interior of the office, built 7 pasture and pen fences, built and installed new barn doors, Built 3 one-hundred pound wooden benches, roofed and sided the hay barn, stained the original arena and stained most of the existing fences.
Indiana
Versailles State Park
This project was epic! We built an almost 2000sf scenic overlook observation deck. If that weren't enough, we re-floored a mess hall, built a gravel trail, painted the exterior of 2 large buildings, painted the interior of 2 cabins and a few other odds and ends. We did it all in 19 days, with 26 volunteers and put in over 1500 man hours.
South Dakota
Custer and Palisades State Parks
At Custer State Park we painted the bison corrals for their annual bison round up. Then we moved to Palisades State Park where we cleared, widened and resurfaced the South Wall Trail.
Alabama
Bucks Pocket State Park
This park had been closed in 2015 for budget reasons and was getting reopened on June 15, 2020. Here we had 29 volunteers join us who put in a total of 3200 hours, over 40 days. We remodeled the Campground Office, created the buck's head entrance emblem, cleared trails, built 7 tent camping sites and 4 primitive sites, painted the maintenance and storage shed, restored and painted the playground and cleared flood debris. This park was the heart and soul of this community and all were thrilled to see it reopened.
Alabama
Joe Wheeler State Park
We helped get this park re-opened! They were supposed to be closed until 2021 but after we completed several projects, they decided to open on Memorial Day weekend 2020! Here we remodeled the campground store, built and installed bridges, painted, cleaned, drywalled, and a whole lot more!
Texas
Coastal Oaks Church
This area was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The Coastal Oaks Church had a building that was damaged and needed to be demoed. They needed to save money on the demo so they could apply it to the reconstruction, and A Year To Volunteer came in for 12 days with 11 volunteers and got the job done!
Florida
Florida Caverns State Park
The Florida Caverns were devastated by Hurricane Michael in Oct 2018. 9 out of 10 trees were destroyed. This campground had been closed for 16 months. Here we built a boyscout shower, tamped RV pads, built horse and tent pads, removed fences, debris and much much more!
Our Core Values
Make a positive impact
Never impact their revenue
Make it easy on them
Get in, get out
Have fun!