Conservation Volunteering Near Me

Volunteers & Beers: Rhodes Park Cleanup + ThunderWing Brewing!

Ready to get your hands dirty and reward yourself with some of the best local craft beer on the West Side? Join us for our next **Volunteers and Beers** outing! We’re heading to Rhodes Park to clear out litter, spruce up the green spaces, and keep Columbus beautiful. Once we’ve done the heavy lifting, we’re taking the short 4-minute drive over to **ThunderWing Brewing** to celebrate a job well done.

COUNT RMH Housewarmer Volunteering (Ronald McDonald House)

Some trained COUNT volunteers work together once a month at RMH (http://www.rmhc-centralohio.org/volunteer.php) as Housewarmers (usually on the 1st Sunday from 1 – 5 PM). Some schedule other shifts at their convenience. You may try this out with less fuss by following a "Fast track" or go through the normal process. Fast track • Arrange a time to shadow a COUNT volunteer. Call Dave Nohle at 614-268-9558 (cell). • Show up and try it out. • Complete application, etc. later. Normal process • Complete an online application (http://rmhc-centralohio.org/volunteer/). • Attend orientation in advance. • At orientation you will complete forms agreeing to keep family/patient info private and allowing a background check and tour the facility. • Complete one training shift. Daily shifts are: morning 9 AM - 1 PM, afternoon 1 - 5 PM and evening 5 - 9 PM. • Schedule shifts online using the on the RMH scheduling system (http://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/?FROM=32895). The Ronald McDonald House (RMH) provides housing and meals for families with sick children. The Columbus RMH is the largest in the world with 137 rooms. COUNT has been volunteering there since May 2014. Housewarmers work with RMH guests to provide a home-like environment - greet, assist with family needs, answer phones, give tours, assist with checkin/checkout, prepare guest rooms after checkout, clean facility, laundry, restock supplies and staff the front desk. RMH Housewarmers volunteer at least one four-hour shift a month. All Housewarmers must complete an application and agree to a background check before they can be full fledged volunteers.

COUNT monthly event: Kitchen service at Van Buren Center's shelter

Come assist Van Buren Shelter (https://ymcacolumbus.org/locations/vanburen) staff in serving dinners and cleaning up on the 2nd Tuesday of each month. Dinner for the women is 5-6 pm and for the families is 6:15-7:15 pm. There is ample free parking available in the shelter's lot. The recommended area to park is in green in the image above. There will be a new entrance for the time being. We are asking all volunteers to enter through the Donation Dock door, the orange mark on the image above. This door is located between the Single Adults and Family Shelter. You will see 2 large garage doors with a large green trash compactor in the center. Please head to the closest garage door to the building wall, with a ramp leading up. There, you will see a door with a sign stating instructions on how to enter the building. Please ring the doorbell, and a staff member will come and escort you into the building. If a staff member takes longer than 5 minutes, please call the front desk at 614-689-2020. This is a new process for us, and we do not want to keep you waiting! We appreciate your patience as we navigate this temporary change. The shelter needs a volunteer count the day before the event so sign-up ends Monday at 4:50 PM. Afterwards some of us go to the Omnipresent Atheists Weekly Meetup in progress to have a bit to eat or drink (http://www.meetup.com/omnipresentatheists/). Volunteers must be 14 or older. Since we will be working around families, the YMCA does not permit volunteering by individuals with convictions for violent or sexual crimes. The YMCA reserves the right to run background checks on volunteers. For questions, comment on this page or contact: Andrew, awhit12@yahoo.com, (614)937-5802 (cell). Please let Andrew know if you volunteer anytime other than our COUNT events so that he can count your hours toward our service record.

Visit A.P.E.S. Primate Sanctuary, then hang out at NACHOFEST!

Meet at the American Primate Educational Sanctuary (A.P.E.S.), 8380 Kennedy Rd. Blacklick. A.P.E.S., the American Primate Educational Sanctuary, is a non-profit organization that cares for eight White-Handed Gibbons. Located in Blacklick, they house primates that were previously kept as household pets. They are committed to be protectors, conservationists, caregivers and educators for all primates, especially the Capuchin monkey and the endangered White-Handed Gibbon. [https://apesohio.weebly.com/](https://apesohio.weebly.com/) They ask for a $10 donation toward the care of the animals. When finished at A.P.E.S., we will head on over to Edison Brewery, 785 Science Blvd, Gahanna, for NACHOFEST for an afternoon of live music, community, and a celebration of the NACHO community (stay as long as you'd like; it's open until 6 pm). There are bands playing throughout the event, including the TBDBITL Alumni Band, Clintonville Community Jazz Band, NACHO Saxadillas, Cap City Funk, and the NACHO Street Band\*. The Taquitos Food Truck will be there. \*The NACHO Street Band is made up of Nationwide Children’s Hospital staff, family, and friends working to raise awareness and money for the hospital and the Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio. Free to attend and donations can be made to the campaign for the Mid-Ohio Food Collective. Every dollar donated means 2 1/2 meals for those in need. Great music for a great cause, not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon! Links: A.P.E.S. [https://apesohio.weebly.com/](https://apesohio.weebly.com/) Edison Brewery [https://www.drinkedison.com/](https://www.drinkedison.com/) NACHO Street Band [https://www.facebook.com/NACHOStreetband/](https://www.facebook.com/NACHOStreetband/)

Hike Sharon Woods

**Let’s meet at the Maple Grove Picnic Shelter. We’ll do the paved 4 mile loop at a 17-18 min/mile pace.**

Tour Rumple Recycling Center, take a walk, and dine at Scotty's Cafe!

This will be a very cool event! We will start with a tour of the Rumpke Recycling & Resource Center, the largest and most technically advanced recycling center in North America. The tour starts at 9 am so plan on arriving a few minutes early so our group can convene. There may be a few other people on our tour, which lasts an hour. From there we'll go to Nelson Park, which is about 1.4 miles from Rumpke, has parking and sits directly on Alum Creek Trail (which is paved). We'll walk about 3 miles (out and back) on Alum Creek and then head to Scotty's Cafe for lunch. Closed toe shoes with backs are required. https://www.rumpke.com/about-us/service-areas/oh/franklin-county/columbus/recycling-resource-center https://scottys-cafe.menu-world.com/#about Address: Nelson Park, 430 N. Nelson Rd., Columbus, OH Address: Scotty's Cafe, 2980 East Broad St., Columbus, OH

Trails & Ales! Blacklick Woods Metro Park / Eastside Brewing Co

**History** The deep indigenous history of the land comprising [Blacklick Woods Metro Park](https://www.metroparks.net/parks-and-trails/blacklick-woods/) came to light in stages, beginning with a major discovery during the park's mid-century expansion. In 1961, the park district acquired a 100-acre parcel of land where a previous owner had stripped away topsoil and gravel from a five-acre section. Beneath the surface, workers uncovered 16 ancient fire rings buried roughly 30 inches underground. The park district promptly invited Dr. Raymond S. Baby, the respected Curator of Archaeology at the Ohio State Museum, to evaluate the site. After a thorough review, Dr. Baby confirmed the authenticity of the find and determined that the fire rings were the unmistakable remnants of a prehistoric Late Woodland period Indian village dating between AD 600 and AD 1200. This incredible area was proudly highlighted as the "Indian Village Site" on official Blacklick Woods park maps throughout the 1960s, anchoring the park's identity in Ohio's rich indigenous heritage. Decades later, the park's archaeological timeline expanded significantly when a completely separate, grander feature was discovered hidden just west of Blacklick Creek. In 2017, David Lamp, an eagle-eyed former archaeologist from Lancaster, was systematically analyzing historical aerial photographs kept by the USDA to locate undocumented native structures. While examining a photograph captured in 1954 -- back when the property was still a rural farm owned by the Ashton Lamp family -- he spied a massive, distinct dark circle. Because perfect circles are an extreme anomaly in the natural world, Lamp immediately recognized the shadow as the footprint of a forgotten indigenous monument. Before the land became a protected park, decades of heavy agricultural plowing and livestock grazing had flattened the ground, wearing the structure's physical height down to an easily overlooked 10 inches tall. To verify Lamp's incredible aerial find, a team from the Heartland Earthworks Conservancy partnered with park staff to clear away dense brush and trees covering the site. Renowned volunteer archaeologist Jarrod Burks led a sophisticated geophysical survey on September 24, 2017, inviting the public to watch the science unfold in real time. Burks pulled an array of highly sensitive magnetometers across the soil, measuring minuscule variations in the ground's magnetic content. Because topsoil holds a higher magnetic signature than deeper substrate layers, the instruments clearly mapped a massive, ancient ditch that had filled with topsoil over centuries of erosion. This advanced technology produced a stunning, flawless digital visualization of a hidden prehistoric circular earthwork buried right beneath the feet of unsuspecting park hikers. The data collected by Burks revealed that the Blacklick Circle originally featured a three-to-five-foot earthen embankment pairing with a distinct interior ditch. The structure is estimated to have a total diameter of just under 100 feet, and the magnetic imaging perfectly captured the precise location of the circle’s original eastern entranceway. Archaeologists attribute this monumental construction to the ancient Adena or Hopewell cultures, pushing the park’s human history back roughly 2,000 to 2,200 years. While the Adena and Hopewell peoples are famous throughout the Ohio River valley for building giant burial mounds, circular enclosures like this one served distinct communal purposes. Because these earthworks do not contain human remains, they are understood to be highly sacred, carefully engineered gathering spaces for spiritual ceremonies and social alignment. Today, the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks system treats this miraculous discovery as a crown jewel of regional cultural heritage. Rather than excavating and disrupting the sacred ground, the park utilizes a creative technique known as interpretive mowing. By cutting the grass at strategic heights, rangers visually outline the exact contours and entrance of the ancient circle so visitors can appreciate its scale from the adjacent recreational trail. Educational signs and informative placards now stand near the site, teaching families about the advanced architectural and mathematical skills of the region's first inhabitants. The discovery stands as a powerful reminder that our local green spaces are not just nature preserves, but deeply sacred, historical landscapes that have drawn human communities together for millennia. **Map of the Park** Here is a [map of Blacklick Woods](https://www.metroparks.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/BLK-map-May-2025-with-extended-greenway_1980px.jpg). **Summary** For this event, we will hike about 4.5 miles by doing a couple loops of the Buttonbush, Tucker, Maple Loop, and Beech trails. Blacklick Woods is a very nice park, but it is generally flat and not strenuous, so this will be one of our easier hikes. **Where We'll Meet** Drive all the way to the back of the park to the parking lot that is nearest the Nature Center. There are restrooms here next to the [Canopy Walk](https://www.metroparks.net/parks-and-trails/blacklick-woods/#canopy-walk). We'll meet near these restrooms. **After the Hike** Afterward, we'll head over to [Eastside Brewing Co](https://www.eastsidebrewingco.com/) for drinks and [food](https://www.facebook.com/p/Smash-N-Eatz-61578406199442/). The actual address of the brewery is [1421 Davidson Dr, Reynoldsburg, OH 43068](https://www.google.com/maps/place/1421+Davidson+Dr,+Reynoldsburg,+OH+43068/@39.9541807,-82.8056303,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x8838648e132b4655:0x9d9c1d48e854e09b!8m2!3d39.9541807!4d-82.8056303!16s%2Fg%2F11bw49sw7m?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDkxMy4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D). We should be there by 5 if you can't make the hike and just want to join us for drinks.

Nature Loving Fest | Autumn Edition

Join us for the Autumn edition of [Nature Loving Fest](https://www.facebook.com/events/26278108015134799), a small, thoughtfully curated outdoor gathering celebrating comforting vegan eats, handmade goods, and the turning of the season. Formerly known as our Vegan Pop-Up, this gathering remains a space rooted in nature, community, and intentional living. Expect around 20 local vendors offering seasonal vegan comfort food, small-batch bakes, handcrafted goods, and earth-conscious products inspired by harvest time. This is a welcoming space to gather, reflect, and enjoy the cozy, grounding energy of autumn. Come support local makers, share good food, and welcome the harvest season with us. Admission is Free.

Free yoga

Dog Walk at Franklin Park Conservatory

Dog Walk - come enjoy the beautiful grounds at Franklin Park Conservatory with your dog! We’ll meet on the path near the entrance. Paths are paved and nicely maintained but sunny! The loop I take is approx. 2mi around. There are plenty of shortcuts back if that’s too far or we can take it twice if the dogs are up to it. Please keep all dogs leashed as per park rules, thanks!

Blendon Woods Hike

Meet at the Nature Center parking lot at Blendon Woods to hike the Sugarbush, Hickory Ridge, Overlook, and Brookside trails approximately 4 miles at 18 min/mile pace. Optional lunch if there is interest :)

Columbus Mastering the Art of Aquatic Landscapes

We are getting together to talk shop and share techniques for building beautiful, healthy planted tanks. Whether you are currently struggling to balance your CO2 levels or you are looking for tips on hardscaping and plant placement, this session is meant to be an informal space to learn from one another. We will spend some time discussing the common challenges of aquascaping and how to create the specific aesthetic you are aiming for in your own setup. This gathering is for anyone who appreciates the craft of aquatic gardening, regardless of your skill level. The goal is to connect with other local enthusiasts, troubleshoot any issues you might be having with your current tank, and get some fresh inspiration for your next project. It is a great chance to swap advice and talk through the details that make a tank thrive. If you have been wanting to get more involved in the local hobby, please click the RSVP button so we can get a sense of how many people to expect.