Volunteer Information

The 2008 volunteer season has been very successful and at this time all of the 2008 volunteering opportunities are filled.  The 2008 season volunteer weekends are also filled. 

If you have construction management experience and would like to volunteer for the 2009 season, we would like to hear from you soon.  Please e-mail land_volunteer at patchadams.org 

If you wish to volunteer for the 2009 season, please e-mail in early January for a volunteer application packet.  Please send e-mail inquiries to land_volunteer@patchadams.org

In the interim, if you would like to volunteer to help Gesundheit, please help us FUNd-raise for the teaching center and clinic!  Thanks for your interest!

As the Gesundheit! Institute works toward building a model hospital, we maintain the land, host various events on-site, and accept volunteers for various projects on the land.

... a 317-acre farm in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. The land has three waterfalls, with caves behind one. We built a four acre pond, there is a mountain of hardwood trees and twenty-eight acres of rich bottom land that has had no chemicals on it for 22 years. We have built two beautiful buildings in anticipation of someday building the hospital. Two years ago, with a little sadness that the hospital was still not built, and a hunger to begin seeing patients again, I agreed to consider reopening with a first phase that would include an outpatient clinic and a school for social change, with residence facilities for the staff.
—Patch Adams

Our main on-site work in West Virginia has been to care for what we have, to restore what we can, and finally to introduce new elements into well-functioning systems. To date, we have completed a multipurpose workshop, lake, trails, multiple renovations on the existing farmhouse, tool sheds, a dwelling for volunteers, a staff house called the Dacha, preliminary landscaping, a small orchard and organic gardens. Most of these projects were completed and are maintained with volunteer labor. The mosaic of contribution is subtly striking to behold, and a joy to be a part of.

Though it is our clear intention to build our envisioned hospital, we must emphasize that we have not yet begun any hospital construction. We will not see patients or offer health care on the land in West Virginia until we have finished Phases IV and V of our building, which will include an outpatient clinic with a clinic staff residential component.

Our volunteers take our play as seriously as our work and help keep our work as outrageous as our play. And we actually get lots done! If you’re serious about volunteering, prepare yourself for a little crazy, a little zany, and a process that respects the eclectic flow of diverse needs. Everyone is responsible for their own delight. In other words, you create your own experiences here within the context on consensus. Please ask questions or voice your concerns as the need pops up. Communication is the most important ingredient in the Gesundheit! soup we co-create. In this context, a lot of healing can happen. At the same time, our program and projects are not ones that offer sanctuary or retreat as a primary focus. We expect our volunteers to dive into what can be the demanding work of living in close community. We will stimulate dialogue, expose people to new ideas, listen intently to each other's dreams, drink up each task, sing and ponder, find our fun and run, be ourselves, and promote a sense of service in ourselves and others. However, if you are in crisis or need a lot of nurturing, our volunteer program is not appropriate for you. Please be aware that Gesundheit! is drug free.

How the volunteer program works

We host volunteer work camps (a team of 10–15 for 4–10 days), short-term volunteers (individuals or couples for 3–14 days), and long-term volunteers (individuals or couples for 1–2 months). We ask that volunteers be at least 18 years old or be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Volunteers contribute 35 hours per week of work in exchange for room and board. This year we will host a several work camps, several volunteer weekends and seek to fill specific volunteer positions. Almost all openings we hope to fill with long term volunteers. Occasionally, we have need of a short term volunteer with building, carpentry, woodworking or house painting experience.

Each day at G!I WV is as unique as each person here. While the typical day eludes us, we work with the land and actively contribute in our local community. Expect to find the lines between work and play blur and disappear during your stay here, time will speed up and slow down simultaneously, and as the present slips into a memory a new now is born. Expect to work on a variety of projects. Find descriptions of work projects volunteers and groups have done before. Your experience may have some of these elements, or may be completely different. In addition to projects like these below, everyone will rotate cooking and cleaning on a meal team, answering the phone, household cleaning, laundry, chopping wood and carrying water. The whole group will participate in pre-departure blitz cleanings.

Organic Garden Work Volunteers have been a big help in garden fencing, bringing in new beds and amending existing raised beds the last three years. They have also planted seeds, transplanted starts, and nurtured perennial and annual food crops by watering, weeding, harvesting and foraging! You’ll help fill our bellies (and those of future volunteers) while you learn more about organic gardening! Long term volunteers may be asked to help guide activities with short-term volunteers. This position also offers experience in permaculture, biodynamics, and bioregionalism. Gardening experience is helpful, a passion for learning about growing food is more important. We are also looking for helpers in the garden.

Grounds Maintenance: Be the muscle behind the simple methods we use to maintain our forests, meadows, trails, springs and lawns. Help with exotic invasive removal, making hay, brush hogging, weed whacking, springhouse maintenance, and mowing. Long-term volunteers may be asked to help guide activities with short-term volunteers. Exotic Invasive Removal Teams of 3-5 people working together can clear lots of multi-floral rose, the most prolific exotic invasive in our area. Introduced as a living fence by the USDA in the 1950’s, the plant has crowded out many native species as it dominates along the edges of the forest and stream banks. The thorny thicket has been initially removed in many places on the land; we will need to continually cut back multi-floral growth until natives flourish again. We also intend to continue initial invasive removal in new areas.

Kitchen Coordinator: Coordinate the kitchen, pantry, and food preservation efforts. This vital position organizes meal sign-ups, coaches meal prep for those that need coaching, orders from our food coop, local baker and grocer, supervises cleanups, interfaces with the garden and the cooks, and provides direction in our kitchen and farmhouse, the hub of activity here on the land.

Cooking Staff: During the School for Designing a Society in July and August, we need a dedicated cooking team of 6-8 volunteers to prepare vegetarian lunch and supper meals for approximately 40 people. If you like to cook and can commit to being here from the last week in June through mid- to late-August, this might be a good volunteer position for you.

Clowning Many volunteer groups have made Gesundheit! clowning interactions fresh and lively. We encourage costumed meals with or without a theme. Cosmic bowling while in costume spreads smiles and the Gesundheit! spirit in our community. The work with the most direct impact is clowning in the local hospital, nursing homes, and at the pregnant women’s prison.

Possible Projects include:

• Entrance Terracing
• Landscaping
• Spring Development
• Shiitake mushroom innoculation
• Gardening
• Road-side Clean Up
• Exotic Invasive Removal
• Bridge Replacement
• Composting Toilet Building Project

Please also let us know if you have skills you would like to use in the following areas:

• Building Maintenance
• Building/Carpentry
• Wood Working
• Grant Writing
• Sustainable Forestry
• Computers/Tech
• BioDiesel Fuel
• MicroHydro Power
• Alternative Energy

Volunteer Weekends

Volunteer weekends are times for people who want to check out the land, contribute to the project, and do some work prior to making major time commitments. To help defray costs and contribute to the building fund please consider making a monetary donation for these weekends.

This Sounds Great!

If you wish to volunteer for the 2009 season, please e-mail in early January to receive a volunteer application packet by e-mail.  Please send e-mail inquiries to land_volunteer at patchadams.org