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Volunteer Opportunities
Tides of March Benefit Dinner-Details Coming Soon!
Saturday, March 21
On March 1, we'll have all the details of volunteer needs for the PTMSC Tides of March Benefit Dinner. It's a big lift putting on an event, and we are so grateful to our volunteers for helping us throw a fancy party and raise some much needed funds.
Low Tide Walk at Night February 27
We can still use a few more volunteers! If you are new, you can be paired with a more experienced volunteer to learn.
Our last Low Tide Walk at Night of the winter is coming up and we can still use your help! Friday February 27th 6:00pm - 7:30pm
We are looking for six or seven volunteers to guide small groups of participants around the tide pools at North Beach and help point out cool things you find along the way in the dark! Please bear in mind that this role requires balance and confidence walking over slick rocks and algae at night. A basic familiarity with intertidal life is great; if you are newer to tidepooling we can find someone to buddy with.
Please email Carolyn at cwoods@ptmsc.org with questions, and to volunteer for Low Tide Walks.
Volunteer Corner
PTMSC is hosting 2 opportunities each month for volunteers to get to know PTMSC, our staff and each other better. We hope you'll be able to join us sometime!
Join us for our Brown Bag Lunch—an easygoing get-together where PTMSC volunteers can enjoy a relaxed lunch, and take part in a program created just for you.
Brown Bag Lunch-Understanding iNaturalist with WendyFeltham
March 12, 12pm, PTMSC exhibit at Fort Worden
PTMSC volunteer Wendy Feltham is now a volunteer Ambassador for iNaturalist. She will introduce iNaturalist—a free online citizen science project for identifying plants and animals while contributing valuable data to science and conservation. Wendy will highlight some of her iNaturalist observations and a project and share the results from recent years of the Fort Worden iNaturalist BioBlitzes. She will show how you can use the iNaturalist app on your phone or download photos to your computer to document local biodiversity anytime as well as during the BioBlitz in June.
Join us at Social Fabric Brewing on the third Tuesday of every month at 5pm for Pints and Plankton—aka marine science happy hour! No science talk required (unless you really want to).
This is a laid-back chance for volunteers to hang out, get to know each other and our staff, and enjoy some good drinks while supporting a local microbrewery.
Our next Pints and Plankton will be on Tuesday, March 17 at 5pm.
Announcements
Bull Kelp: Our Remarkable Underwater Forests
In the Flagship Gallery starting Feb 13, 12-3pm
The kelp forests are a vital habitat that relatively few people have the ability to explore. The Bull Kelp exhibit is an immersive experience allowing people to walk into a kelp forest, and see the animals that live there. This exhibit was created by Port Townsend Marine Science Center and has traveled to libraries and other community marine science centers in our region, and it is back home for folks to enjoy!
With art created by Timbul Cahyono, handmade 3-D animals by Mariah Vane, and text created by Andrew Whiteman, this exhibit is a truly beautiful way to get to investigate our marine forests.
March Book Club
Sunday, March 8, 2pm
Starting on land, we discover how whales ended up in the sea. This title explores their lives from the fossil record to the living, breathing beings we have today. What have whales been doing for the past 50 million years, what are they doing now, and how will human impact affect their lives moving forward?
The Community Tool Library offers tools and other useful things to borrow when you need them! This is based on the simple idea that we don’t all need to own everything we use and that through sharing, we can build community.
Gift bags always needed The Gift Shop will happily repurpose your clean, gently used handle bags and gift bags! All sizes needed. Paper or cloth only, please.
They can be dropped off in the store or admin office during open hours. Thank you so much!
Upcoming courses, workshops, lectures and exhibits (not hosted by PTMSC)
Becoming a Crab Team network monitor involves visiting your designated site 2 consecutive days each month, April-September, with your team and collecting a wide variety of data on the native species present.
The required training is 2 virtual sessions (Zoom, 3/11 & 3/12, noon-1:30pm) + 1 in-person session (many locations including Port Townsend 3/24, 12:30-4:30pm).
Sound fun? Fill out an Interest Form at https://tinyurl.com/crabteam2026, and Washington Sea Grant Crab Team staff will get back to you with more info.
Volunteer Appreciation
We love our volunteers!
Housekeeping & General Info
Are your volunteer hours up to date?
The time you give in volunteering with PTMSC has value beyond the mission you support and hopefully the feelings of contribution and connection it gives you.
Those hours are used in grant writing and reporting, which happens year round and is an important piece of the funding for PTMSC. We are in need of current hours!
Information about and the link for recording your hours
A link to the awesome Volunteer Resources page. Learn about PTMSC, the Salish Sea, habitats, current issues, and much more
The past four volunteer updates
Volunteer schedules: currently the Gallery and Citizen Science schedules
Volunteer spotlight blogposts
You can find the webpage at this link, and in the Support section of the webpage.
PTMSC volunteer Facebook group
Visit the PTMSC Volunteer page on Facebook. This is a private group just for volunteers, and we try to populate it with interesting photos, updates from the marine science world, and of course with the many activities of our fabulous volunteers.
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