The numbers are huge, and the scope vast. Some 16,000 volunteers contribute half a million hours of service to AMC every year. They maintain trails from Maine's Acadia National Park down to the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia. They lead trips ranging from explorations of local parks to excursions on Annapurna. They study alpine wildflowers and update web pages. Initially brought together by a shared interest in enjoying and protecting the outdoors, AMC's volunteers often find ways to put their own particular skills to work for the organization.

GETTING STARTED

There are countless ways to volunteer with AMC. Here are a few suggestions for getting started, depending on how much time you have to give. To learn more about these opportunities and others, visit outdoors.org/volunteers. A few hours per year Attend a National Trails Day (June 4) or National Public Lands Day (September 24) event :: Work at an annual chapter event :: Participate in Mountain Watch A few days per year Adopt a Trail :: Be an info vol, volunteer naturalist, alpine steward, or evening presenter (and stay for free at AMC huts and lodges) A few hours per month Lead chapter trips :: Join a volunteer trail crew A few hours per week Be a Boston Visitor Center volunteer :: Serve as a committee member or chair in your chapter

Here are the stories of three volunteers. They're from three different countries, represent three different chapters, and followed three different paths to AMC. But they also represent a common theme: They joined AMC as outdoor enthusiasts, then found their involvement developing into something deeper. Now they find their enjoyment not just in experiencing the outdoors, but also in helping others do so. All conversations have been edited and condensed.

Steve Ridgley 60, Amesbury, Mass.
Boston Chapter

• Member since 1983
• Youth Opportunities Program (YOP) leader since 1978
• Long-time YOP Canoeing Workshop Instructor
• Recipient of 2004 YOP Distinguished Service Award
• Recipient of 2008 Volunteer Leadership Award

How did you first become involved with AMC?
My dad was an AMC member back when you had to be sponsored. So we hiked together, way back in the early 1960s.

When did you become involved with YOP?
I was working for a special needs school in Cambridge in 1978, and they were looking to do outdoors things. When I was looking for resources, AMC was a logical place to look. I went out on the trainings and began using YOP as a resource. Years later, they asked me to help resurrect the canoe program. I now work for the North Shore Academy in Beverly, so I'm still utilizing YOP as a vehicle for its primary mission, which is to provide the training and the equipment and the other supportive resources that allow youth agencies to incorporate the wonders of the outdoors into whatever they do.

What is it that you enjoy about volunteering for YOP?
If you like young people and you like the outdoors, you're already about two-thirds of the way to really enjoying what you're doing. The other third is when you see how powerfully positive a force the outdoors can be in a young person's life. Then it really becomes something that you want to continue to do.

What was your most rewarding moment as a volunteer?
There's just so many—so many times, so many kids, so many really wonderful experiences. I do remember this one: I was with some kids who were on their first backpacking trip, and we were up in the Presidentials, and the valleys were completely filled with clouds, with fog below. It was that wonderful look of a giant white sea, with just the high peaks of the Presidentials poking out above, as if they were floating like islands above it. And the kids were really psyched. They just couldn't believe they were out there and the sun was shining. And one of the kids looked down and said, "Boy, the people down below must be thinking it's a really bad day."

What are some of the biggest challenges you've had to face as a volunteer?
You have to spend so much time thinking about what this kid's going to be like in the outdoors, what're gonna be the challenges. Because it's not just that you take the kid and you throw them in the outdoors and something magical happens. You have to be the agent of that, and you have to be a very careful, thoughtful, therapeutic agent.

What has surprised you about your time as a volunteer?
I think if you maintain that sort of contact with kids, then you maintain contact with the sense of excitement, surprise, and innocence that makes everything novel and exciting. It's just so neat—the water, the snow, wanting to go sliding down the hill, or build a snow fort, or hitting the big peaks of the waves in a canoe. Sure, you could steer it off to the side, but what the heck. Just plow right through the middle of them and get splashed! And that sense of beauty and adventure—I think that struck me originally and has continued to be sustaining.

Maria Earley 61, Wakefield, R.I.
Narragansett Chapter

• Member since 1996
• Trails volunteer since 1997
• Hike leader since 1997
• Former Membership Chair (4 years)
• Former Interim Trails Chair (1 year)
• Trail Adopter in the White Mountains since 2000 and in South Kingston, R.I., since 2007
• Recipient of 2005 Narragansett Chapter Appie of the Year; 2006-2008 and 2010 Stewardship Society Marian Pychowska Award

What first interested you in the outdoors?
I was brought up in a little village in Portugal and we did a lot of stuff outdoors. We gathered wood, we worked on the farm. I enjoyed the outdoors. It's good for your soul and it's good for your body, physically, and emotionally.

Why is volunteering important to you?
I think it's important to do something that you enjoy. It's important to do something to contribute to the society as a whole. And it's important to either help other people, or to help a cause, or in the instance of doing trail work, to improve what's there for others to enjoy.

What keeps you motivated as a volunteer?
The camaraderie of the people. The feeling of a good day's work: You are tired but you are rewarded. When you hike on a trail where somebody has done good trail work, you treasure that. I take the opportunity when I can to say, "See this work over here? This was done by our trails committee."

Many people are familiar with AMC's trail work in the White Mountains, but you're a trail adopter in Rhode Island, is that right?
That's correct. It's a series of trails in South Kingston called Tri-Pond. It's heavily used because it's right in the middle of the community and kids actually cross the trail to shortcut to school. And you have a nature center where they have classes and take people on short walks.

Were you familiar with the trails in South Kingston before you became involved in AMC?
Actually, I wasn't. And it's 5 miles from where I live. Once you're a member of the club, you hear about these places, join a hike, and then you get to learn. We try to have hikes all over the state, with people from different areas.

What are some of the challenges that you've faced as a volunteer?
The big challenge is not having enough volunteers. A lot of work is done by calling people. We have very few people that will call and say "I'll be there to help out," you know? You've got to seek out people. As a membership chair, how did you attract new people to AMC? I tried to promote the benefits of being a member: Enjoying other people pursuing the same interests, enjoying the outdoors, the benefits of the exercise, that you don't have to spend a bundle of money to have a nice time. And a lot of times people have already heard about AMC, but you want them to be exposed. That's why I have new member hikes, because if somebody inquired about becoming a member, I would say, "Come and join us."

Michael O'Connor 44, Montreal
New Hampshire Chapter

• AMC member since 1997
• Trail Adopter since 2001
• Trail Adopter Region Leader since 2005
• North Country Adopt-a-Trail Registrar since 2008
• Volunteer Trail Crew Leader since 2008
• Alpine Steward since 2006
• Lead Volunteer for Alpine Stewardship since 2010
• Information Volunteer since 2002
• Information Volunteer Training Committee founding member, 2004-2007
• Fill-in Huts and Tent-Sites Caretaker since 1999
• Recipient of 2010 Volunteer Leadership Award; 2003-2010 Stewardship Society Warren Hart Award (for 224+ hours service)

How did you get involved volunteering with AMC?
Probably 18 years ago, I drove through the White Mountains and it looked like a really cool place to stop. I started camping there and learned about the AMC and joined. Then I responded to an ad to volunteer to fill in as a caretaker. I registered campers, dealt with the composting toilet, answered people's questions. That was my introduction to AMC.

What keeps you going as a volunteer?
It's always something new. It's based on your previous experience. You become the leader teaching other people what you got taught 10 years ago. You can also see something from the other side. I've filled in for the hut croos and you get to see it from the croo side.

Does AMC fill all your free time?
It pretty much takes up all my vacation time. But that's not a bad thing. I thoroughly look forward to it. This summer I'm headed up to Madison Hut; I want to see the renovations.

Describe one of the more challenging situations you've been in as a volunteer.
A college group was cooking on the helicopter pad outside Galehead when I was filling in as caretaker. They had a big pot of pasta boiling on a small burner and it splashed and burned one of the female students.

I had to help the leader get what he needed but not be in his face, so he would accept my help. I did it in the background. I got him medical supplies. I found someone to walk down with him and the injured person.

The next day, the leader hiked back up and he thanked me. He said, "I didn't realize what you were doing yesterday. You basically made all the decisions for me and made me feel like I made them."

How did you learn to do that, to lead without telling people directly what they should do?
As an info vol, you see people come in at Pinkham Notch saying they want to do a certain hike. It's way too much mileage and there's not enough daylight. You have to delicately talk them down to something reasonable. In the beginning I was probably more abrupt. But you get better at it.

As a volunteer alpine steward, you once chose to stop your flower research because you had a hunch someone was in trouble. Is search and rescue part of your job?
It's all voluntary. In that case, there was something in the back of my head saying, "Remember that guy you passed? He was kind of bent over and looking green? Maybe you should go back and check on him." I ended up getting him to drink water, giving him snacks, and walking slowly with him and the woman he was with to the hut. The caretaker hiked out to his car to get him his medicine. If I hadn't turned around, it probably would have been an air rescue or he might have perished on Lafayette.

What are your favorite places outdoors?That's tough. I've been to Baxter State Park twice, and I like the remote feeling. Of AMC places, Mizpah and Galehead huts. I've been to those most frequently and it feels like going home.

Photos: Mike Parker (Earley), Cindy Martell (O'Connor)