Rake It 'Til You Make It: Volunteering With APF

The gals are back and this month, they're getting their hands dirty and digging into volunteering! Fresh off a record-setting It's My Park Day event, they're joined by Senior Volunteer Coordinator Freddy Nieto, who is a wealth of knowledge on the subject. Together, the gang breaks down APF's volunteer program and talks about how you can get involved. Once you're done listening, head to austinparks.org/volunteer to learn more and to join an upcoming event! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Just eats beans. I do love a bean.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Doesn't it open that under the breath?

SPEAKER_01 0:04

There is your intro. And I do love a bean. Hello and welcome to People of the Parks, the official podcast of Austin Parks Foundation. I am your host, Katie. And as always, I'm joined by my trusty sidekick, Susie. Sidekick? Yes. And you've been upgraded. I love. And our fabulous producer, Taylor. Hello. And as you know, spring has sprung. April is almost here. And that means we are rapidly approaching National Volunteer Month.

SPEAKER_04 0:38

Yes, at APF, you know we love our volunteers. We do. This seemed like the perfect moment to take a little deeper look into our volunteer program. And to do that, we are joined by a very special guest today. Are you ready for Freddie? Yes, we are. That's right. Today we have Freddie Nieto in the studio with us. And he's our senior volunteer coordinator at APF. Welcome to the pod, Freddie.

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

We're excited for you to be here. If we're talking volunteering, we gotta take it all the way back to APF's humble beginnings. This organization started as a grassroots volunteer org in 1992. And Taylor, were you alive in 1992? I knew you were gonna ask. I was not.

SPEAKER_04 1:23

What about you, Freddie?

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I was not either. Oh not at all. Susan?

SPEAKER_04 1:27

I absolutely was. I'm older than APF. By how much? By a year. Oh, in six months. 91 babies.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I was already riding a bike with no training wheels at this point. With no handlebar. Anyway, well, while we have grown exponentially since 1992, those volunteer routes still run deep.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

They certainly do. So, Freddie, why don't you start by giving us the lay of the land? What does the volunteer program at APF encapsulate?

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah, we really focus on a little bit of everything, but our main focus is, you know, on honoring our mission, which is, you know, to put people in parks together. So we're super excited to do that every single, every single year, every single day. When you see us out at the parks, you know that we're focusing on trying to improve the parks, trying to bring you out to the parks, trying to get you to activate your park and whatever way that could be, whether it through it's an activation or whether it's through a volunteer event.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Well, and I think that's like super important because we know that when a park is activated, it's much more utilized, it's safer, it's just Yeah, for sure. It's gonna get a lot of more a lot more use out of it.

SPEAKER_04 2:31

So that's great. And as we know, Austin has nearly 400 of these parks. Yeah, so that's 20,000 acres of parks. That's an awful lot of acres.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

We always put that into comparison with volunteers when we're out and about. Yeah. Um we put like a city like Chicago, for example, that has only 6,000 acres.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Chicago only has 6,000? So we have 20 already.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

The amount. So think about that.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Wow. So we have a lot of people. That's why volunteerism is so important. They have a ton of work to do. Think about how much that would cost to maintain just from paid workers only. I can't, my mind can't fathom that.

unknown 3:01

No.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Okay, so why don't we start with kind of like the bread and butter of the volunteer events, our open work days?

unknown 3:10

Are they?

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Funny you should say that. We don't call them open work days anymore.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Oh, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

As of 2026, we're super excited to let you know that now they're community volunteer events.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Community volunteer events, CVEs, yes. CVEs.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

So that's what we're calling it now. It's gonna be way better for the SEO. Oh, I think that's accommodation.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Any acronym we just love.

SPEAKER_00 3:31

Any acronym we love. But yeah, now they're known as community volunteer events. They're extremely straightforward. They're focused on, you know, bringing you out to the park to help improve it and you know, just be part of it, be part of your neighborhood, be part of the park, and have a stake, stake in it, and be a steward for that park.

SPEAKER_01 3:46

So, how do you participate if you're interested in doing one of these community volunteer events? How do you learn about them and how do you register or how do you get involved?

SPEAKER_00 3:55

Yeah, I know that's a great question. So depending on what park we choose, we'll take a bunch of different routes. But let's take, for example, the Barton Creek Green Belt. We'll work on creating flyers, we'll work on creating um yard signs, we'll put it out throughout the neighborhood. You'll either see it physically in person and you'll be able to scan it with a QR code, which will take you to our gift pulse page. Or if you're not out physically at that park but you're interested in learning how to take part in this, you can go to our website, find our event calendar, and then when you click on that, it takes you to our gift pulse page. And you might be wondering what is a gift pulse page.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

You beat me to the punch.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Well, that give pulse page is a registration page where you can go. It'll have the description and the information on what that event entails, what you have to bring, what we'll be doing, and who you'll be able to contact if you have any additional questions. And obviously it's me. Spoiler alert, it's Freddie. You'll be able to find my email or phone number on there and you know reach out to me. But yeah, that give pulse page gives you everything you need to know. You'll be able to register and then you know you'll get a reminder 24 before 24 hours before that event that'll tell you that you know it's coming up that morning.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

So good reminder.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

So what let's talk about sort of what we're really getting into when we get into the volunteer event. What activities can we expect if we're signing up? What what are what are APF's focuses right now?

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah, well, we're focused on a little bit of everything. I mean, you guys have been here, you know, for a while at APF, so you know. We're old, we get it. Y'all are young, y'all are great. But yeah, we do a little bit of everything recently this year so far. We've really focused on tree plantings, tree mulching, and we're moving into invasive species removal. So we're really focused on that. In the previous year, we got to do a little bit of tree mulching as well. We did some tree plantings, we did invasive species removal, and we also got to do some trail restoration. So you'll get to do a lot of different things. All of them are very different, they're all extremely exciting, and they're all at a different pace. So there's always something for everybody. And so don't ever think you can't do this, or that you know, you're too old or too young for this. There's always something you can do that'll benefit the park and they, you know, will allow you to take part in this event.

SPEAKER_04 5:57

I love that. I know with specifically it's my park day, we get a ton of littles who come out and they participate. Are there any specific events? Let's say I have young children that I want to get involved in the park. Are there any specific events I should look out for that might be better geared towards those little hands?

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, I mean, again, every single event is welcome for every single age. You know, every age is welcome for every single event.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

With a s with a guardian. Yeah, yeah. With a guardian, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Please remember that if you're under 17, you must bring a guardian with you. But for example, right now we have our invasive species removal events coming up. Um, with those, little kids are more than welcome because we have things such as Nandina and Ligustrum that produce berries at this time of year, and you want to clip them and cut them off from the plants. And so kids are able to help us remove those berries and make sure that they don't fall on the ground and regrow.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

And that could be like gamified too, you know. I'm sure kids would like doing things.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Exactly, like seeing who can collect the most. Right, IRL high mochery of yeah, and we do that to begin with, like with our invasive species removal, we love to say who had the biggest catch of the day. So whoever pulls out the biggest legustrum with their weed arends, you know, is a great way to, you know, celebrate the volunteers.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

I was gonna say, you guys just had an event down at um one of the trailheads of Barton Creek Greenbelt, and there were two little kids, and they would run up and grab berries and bring them back down, put them in the bucket, and they were trying to fill the bucket as fast as they could. Yeah. And then there were two like elementary school aged girls that were helping to remove invasives, and they were alone on like doing it themselves because they had just like watched the demonstration and were like, okay, we got it.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, like once you watch that demonstration, once you see how it's done, and once you're you know your parents cool with it, you can really do it on your own. It doesn't, it's not extremely dangerous. There are maybe one or two tasks that are dangerous, but again, we'll keep you away from that. We'll make sure that you're not, you know, involved in any of those activities. Right. But again, the point is to be safe, have a lot of fun, and learn something at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_04 7:45

That's definitely one of my favorite things about any time I get to witness or be a part of a volunteer event, is you know, obviously we work with very passionate adult human beings who care about the parks, but seeing them pass that on and like plant the seed. Yeah, planting the seeds for the new generation to get just as excited about their parks.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Um, it's the importance of taking ownership and you know, your park. Yeah, that's great. So it's not just these community volunteer events, you also organize corporate and civic workdays. Can you talk a little bit about that?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yeah, well, I'd love to start with civic workdays, especially because we were on the topic of like, you know, young ch young kids and you know, the younger generation being a part of this. For example, with our civic workdays, these are different community groups, schools, nonprofits, um, organizations that want to help us in stewarding our parks and taking care of our parks. And so, for example, um, we have a volunteer event coming up soon with the Texas School of the Deaf. I've worked with them in the past, and it's so cool because you get to see kids all the way from first grade all the way up to like eighth grade come out, help their park, you know, and they're making a difference, and it's really cool to get to work with them, you know. And I'm trying to brush up on my sign like sign language a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 8:52

I'm not the best at it, but I didn't know you knew sign language.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

But I'm trying to get better at it because we want to work with them more often. That's great. Because we want to, you know, involve as many people as possible. We don't want anybody to feel left out. Because parks are for everyone, regardless. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 9:06

And if I wanted to set up a civic volunteer event for my group, who would I contact to get that started?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Great question. So you to contact me. I'm a senior volunteer. He does it later. So I do it all. So I'm the person you want to contact if you want a civic work day. And you send me an email, you can schedule a phone call. I'm more than happy to also meet you in person to get this, like, you know, get the ball rolling on this type of project. And we'll discuss project size, project scope, group size, location that you want to be in. So we'll take a lot of different things into account, a lot of different factors, and I'll start, you know, looking for a park for you and seeing what works.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

Okay, so very similar then to how we structure our corporate work days. Where you would reach out to our director of the corporate and foundation giving Stephanie Artman to get an idea of what and where your team wants to set up their event and what that time commitment is going to look like. And you can find Freddie and Stephanie's information on the Austin Parks Foundation website, Austinparks.org, on our team page.

SPEAKER_01 10:07

Well, I'm going to switch gears a little because we can't talk about volunteerism at APF without talking about It's My Park Day. This has been our flagship kind of volunteer event for more than 20 years now. I think we're at like 22 or 23 years.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Um, so why don't you, for the like three people in Austin that don't know what this is, explain what it's my park day is. And also listen to our podcast. Yes. We have talked about this ad nauseum, but it's just such a great event that you can't not.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I mean, I love that you guys have shared about it. My party before. That's awesome to hear. But it's my party, the biannual event that happens two times a year. We do it once in March and once in November. And everybody already knows. If you've seen the yard sign, if you've seen you know our ads on TV or our news segments, um, you've seen that it happens on the first Saturday of March and the first Saturday of November. And so it's a great opportunity for you to meet other Austinites who want to take care of their park, who want to again steward their park and make a difference. And so we're spread out throughout the whole city. So there's not an area of the city that we don't cover, whether it's almost all the way up to Cedar Park or almost all the way down to Butah, there's a park being involved in some way, shape, or form.

SPEAKER_01 11:15

I always, when I do interviews, describe it as a flash mob of volunteers. Exactly. Because it's like three hours, one morning, over a hundred parks, just volunteerism everywhere. The Harlem shit is.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

And there's a little bit of everything. So like you if you want to keep it extremely, you know, calm and smaller group, you can sign up for something really small. But if you want to be at something really big, for example, like Shipe Park, they get about 160 volunteers. You know, if you want to be a part of that, there's also well and also ability level too.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So if you want to be working up a sweat, shoveling mulch, we definitely have that. Exactly. Or if you want to do something a little bit lighter at a community garden or something, you know, there's something for everyone.

SPEAKER_04 11:55

Or even if you want to move more into the activation space. I know we talked about on our last podcast the um introduction of our new activation grants. I know that's also something we've been working on incorporating more into it's my park day.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

For sure.

SPEAKER_04 12:10

Any fun activation events from this last March?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah, this spring is my park day. Right next to our mobile minis, if you guys know where that is. We had a site that chose to do a Gumbia dance activation. So it was like kind of like a dance off. They got a DJ out at the out beside Festival Beach. Um, and so people were out there dancing, picking up trash. There was music, there was food. That is how I cleaned my house.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

It was a great opportunity for people to know, just have fun if you didn't want to do anything.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Well, and that's the thing, is we want it to be fun. We want you to enjoy what you're doing so that you'll keep coming back.

SPEAKER_00 12:43

Exactly. And even if you don't want to volunteer for our actual, you know, volunteering events on It's My Part Day, we also have the lead up and the post It's My Part Day volunteer opportunities where you can just help us and hang out with us during the pickup and drop.

SPEAKER_04 12:57

Oh, and we were cutting it up. We're a ton of fun. Usually there's pizza, usually there's so much fun. That's great. You could possibly be featured in a social media video. Shout out to the big break.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Amazing volunteers who helped us this year. Well, let's talk a little about um some of the numbers from this past It's My Park Day, which happened on March 7th, because this was like a record setter, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, I think so. We were talking about it with our programs team, and we were so happy to see so many people come out to our event. 4,500 people.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

That's crazy. I mean, and usually it's around it's hovered around 3,000, 3,500 for a while.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

That's amazing. And it might be a record setter. So we're still I'm just saying it is.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

I think we're still double checking on that number, but you ask us the biggest one yet. Well, and that that was at uh like a record setting number of projects as well, because we had 108 projects happening all across the city at the same time. So I guess more projects means there's more opportunities.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

You know what's even crazier? The weather. The fucking weather that we have, and we still were able to get that many.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

You know, it's nice to be out in a few. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

I was telling Susie, I was like, I really think that t-shirt design. The t-shirt, okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

So if you volunteer, you get the t-shirt, and this year's t-shirt was great. You also get to wear the t-shirt later in the day, and we have about, I think we had more than two dozen.

SPEAKER_03 14:19

We're about 27, 27, 28. I was trying to fit them all on the flyer.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

Yes, and we had getting harder every year. We had so many give back partners. So you can wear the shirt and you can go to these businesses and get discounts or free beer or free ice cream. There's really something for everyone. I think this year we also had a plant like a nursery, we had a comic book store. So it's been our events team has done such a good job with that. So um, okay, back to the numbers. Our volunteers spread more than a thousand cubic yards of mulch, which to me, I'm like, how much does that mean? That's close to two square miles of mulch.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

It's so much more crazy.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Absolutely crazy.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

It takes so much manpower to just move. Yeah, so if you ever if you ever think, oh, I don't want to volunteer because it's just, you know, plant work and outdoor work, also think about it like a CrossFit class. We love to tell our volunteers after a tree mulching day, you know, you just completed your APF CrossFit class.

SPEAKER_04 15:12

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

So they also removed 16,000 pounds of trash and in total saved the city more than$455,000 in labor in one day. Not even a whole day. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

That number keeps growing, and we hope it keeps growing up.

SPEAKER_04 15:31

Yeah, absolutely huge numbers, um, and definitely a needed investment into Austin's parks. Um, Freddie, how is it organizing such a huge event every year?

SPEAKER_01 15:44

Because we're a small staff and the volunteer team is small but mighty, but how do you guys manage all those people, all those projects, all the tools, all the mulch, yeah, I mean all the things?

SPEAKER_00 15:55

We try to be as organized as possible, and you know, and I think I think we have it down this year. We have everything fully, you know, fully streamlined. We want to get it all as easy, easily, easily done as possible. I along the volunteer manager, you know, I alongside the volunteer manager Robin Gallegos work extremely hard to prepare this event. We spend about maybe, let's see, for example, for the spring event, we start in December. So we're already working in December on working on the spring event, making sure that we are reaching out to the different project leaders that want to lead a project. We're starting to count the tools. So sometimes you'll if you'll if you ever drive by the mobile minis, you'll see me out there counting every single tool that we've got. Inventory, single tool out. We want to make sure that we have the amount of you know tools to help people. Um, we're doing site visits to make sure that the projects that people are proposing are possible. And we're also collaborating with the city to make sure that all these projects are approved, you know, right and that what is what they're doing is safe and you know, actually needed for the park.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

I mean, this seems like a full-time job in itself, and then you're also doing volunteer events all the time.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Exactly. So we're just trying to navigate it all at the same time. We're trying to lead civic projects, corporate projects, and planets my part day. And the great thing is we have a program team, so it's not just me and Robin. Yeah. And aside from the program team, I know all three, I've seen all three of you guys out there. So thank you so much for helping us. I've seen you guys carry a few shovels back and forth to the car.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

Well, speaking of the small and mighty programs team, there's one more thing that I'm really excited about. You've been making some really cool changes this year, and some of the new events that you've been putting in, these skill accelerators. Oh, yeah. Talk to us a little bit about these series. I think it's a really cool shift.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

Yeah, I mean, we're extremely excited about these skill accelerator programs. Um, you they'll be either they'll be named a few different ways. You'll either find it as a skill accelerator program or they could be called a workshop day. Okay. But they're really focused on education. This came out of a need to, you know, provide more than just a volunteer stewardship opportunity, but make sure that we're also focusing on educating the volunteers on what exactly they're doing, what they're removing, why we're removing it, and how it benefits the ecosystem in Austin. And so it's very focused on that educational approach, and we're extremely excited about that. And this also came through a partnership with Ciglo. Ciglo is a uh contractor group that we work with. Um we love Ciglo. We love Siglo. Oh, yeah, and they're helping us lead these projects. So we've put everything together, we've put the advertisements together, we've put the tools and stuff needed, and we've scouted the sites, and now they're helping us, you know, lead them out there in the field. And so we're holding two different um skill accelerator courses. We're out at Barton Creek Greenbelt, and we're also out uh what is the section?

SPEAKER_04 18:32

Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park. Yes, thank you, Susie.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Yeah, so we're at those two sites, and we're again we're extremely excited to be out there with Siglo working on these sites, getting to remove Lugustrum, Nandina, showing people how to girdle and showing why these two plants need to come out of the out of out of out of those parks because they're exotic plants that aren't native to the environment. And a lot of people have these at home and they don't know about it. And so yeah, by also coming out to these events, you're learning how to also, you know, look out for them at home.

unknown 19:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

You know what's funny is now I walk through the park and I'm like, mm-hmm, that tree's been girdled. I know what it is.

SPEAKER_04 19:06

You know exactly what the looks like for me, except it's just wine cup flower identification. Hey, y'all, you gotta start somewhere. So speaking of these amazing events, I think it's time for the bulletin board. You weren't ready for that one, I did not, I did not prepare for the bulletin board. So speaking of, to to just expand on what Freddie was saying about these amazing events, we do have two volunteer skill accelerator programs running right now. The first is um beginning on March 28th at Walnut Creek Metropolitan Park. It is the first of five in this series of volunteer events we're hosting in partnership with Ciglo Group to provide volunteers with that more hands-on, in-depth education on how to support native plants and animals and manage the invasive species in the park. You are encouraged with these events to sign up for all five of the series events. You gotta know how it ends. You do, you do. But if you do hop into an existing accelerator program, don't worry if you've missed the first or second one. You can hop in at any time as long as you're willing to make the commitment to finish it out. So, speaking of which, on Saturday, April 4th, you can join the second of the other volunteer skills accelerator series at Barton Creek Greenbelt. Again, you can check out our event calendar for more details and the link to sign up for any of those dates.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And also happening, of course, is our in the park series. We're officially back for 2026 with plenty of fun free park events for the entire family. On Saturday, March 28th, we've got Art in the Park with Painting Pandas at Mary Moore Sea Wright Metro Park from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.

SPEAKER_04 20:59

And on Monday, March 30th, we have the Spark, the first of our two Spark in the Park series. This one at Gus Garcia District Park from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. That series will take place every Monday throughout May 4th.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

And that is for seniors. Yes, senior citizens for mind and body. So on Wednesday, April 1st, we've got Fitness in the Park, beginner pickleball with Austin. Which every time I hear Austin Pickle Ranch, I get hungry. That sounds good. And it's from 6 30 to 7 30 p.m. also at Gus Garcia District Park. Join us every Wednesday through May 13th for this event. I am very excited for this. I need to know how to I I'm embarrassed to say I've never played pickleball. Same. Well, with the exception of-Burney and Taylor just like gasped. One disaster.

SPEAKER_03 21:51

Okay, sorry. I was thinking of the time Susie did play pickleball at one of our park video. I think this was pre-K.

SPEAKER_04 22:00

I look, she went down. I did. I went down hard. And that was my last foray into pickleball. So I think I need to brush up. You need to get back on the on the basics.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

I need to get back up on the Andes and the Park series are great. Like I've been to the ones in the morning that we hosted in the fall, and they were so much fun to be a part of. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 22:18

You know who's sneaky good at pickleball? Jaina. Yes. Not sneaky. She looks like she'd be good at pickleball. Jaina is good, but sneaky good Angela.

SPEAKER_05 22:26

Oh.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

You know what?

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Angela is our chief development officer. She said she had never played and she was destroying everything.

SPEAKER_00 22:34

We should host an APS pickleball tournament.

SPEAKER_04 22:36

Oh, that would be fun. Let's put a pin in that, and that is a great idea. Okay, but back to the bulletin board. On Thursday, April 2nd, we have the second Spark in the Park series at Garrison District Park, also from 10 to 11 a.m. This Garrison Park series will take place every Thursday through May 7th.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

And finally on Saturday, April 4th, we've got Hoops in the Park at Go Valley Neighborhood Park from 10 to 11 a.m. This is a basketball skills course for kids elementary to eighth grade. Yeah. Hosted by our friends Make a Different Sports. Absolutely. So of course, for more, go to our website at awesomeparks.org and just click on the events calendar for all the details. And also, unrelated, that is my anniversary.

SPEAKER_04 23:21

April 4th? Yeah! 4-4? 4-4. I love that. It's definitely not one of my passwords, so don't even try it again.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

And on that note, that's gonna wrap us up for March. So, Freddie, thank you so much for being here and telling us about the volunteer program. I feel like even we learned a lot and we know a lot about the program. It's been a joy. Yes. And listeners, thank you for being here for another episode of People of the Parks. And hey, if you like this episode, and if you like Freddie, give us a like and subscribe. He's gonna take it personally if you don't. Yes. I want to come back. But until next time, we'll see you outside.