Glacier Institute needs volunteers for work weekend party

Know how to wield a yard rake? Swing a Pulaski? Swipe a paintbrush?

Enjoy nature? Relax and tell a good tale around the campfire?

If so, The Glacier Institute could use you for its annual work-weekend volunteer party May 20 and 21.

Volunteers are needed for a variety of tasks including cleaning, painting, light carpentry and outdoor work such as tree cutting and planting.

The chores will be under way in both of the institute's sites those two days:

-Field Camp, in the park on a bluff overlooking the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, one mile north of West Glacier, and

-Big Creek Outdoor Education Center, on the North Fork of the Flathead River and adjacent to the park, a 20-minute drive from West Glacier and Columbia Falls.

The institute will provide food and lodging, but those who plan to stay overnight should bring sleeping bags.

Tools are not required, but it would be helpful if you could bring a chain saw, carpentry tools, rakes, handsaws and Pulaski, shop vacuum, wheelbarrow or pick.

Interested volunteers should contact The Glacier Institute at 755-1211 or register at glacierinstitute.org.

The Glacier Institute, an educational nonprofit organization in its 23rd year, is a longtime partner of Glacier National Park and the Flathead National Forest.

The institute offers family programs, youth science adventure camps, Discovery School at Big Creek Outdoor Education Center and adult educational programs.