Mark Hardgrove: Public Land Manager, Volunteer, and Amazing Person. Mark is an example of how to retire to something meaningful. The saying goes that you shouldn’t retire from something, but rather that you should retire to something. We are eternally grateful that Mark Hardgrove retired to ConservationVIP. He is a great example of how someone…
A heartfelt gift from Peruvian friends is a reminder that our impact reaches beyond the hours we spend on the volunteer projects themselves. On our Machu Picchu Volunteer Trip, we visit the village of Chinchero and love to spend time with the artisans of Qori Puskay women’s weaving center. The center was founded by Guillermina…
How do we measure a person’s impact on an organization, on fellow volunteers, on communities, on the land? It can’t be done with just numbers. This story was originally featured in our 2024 Impact Report. As we prepared the Impact Report, Garry Oye decided that it was the right time to transition from ConservationVIP projects…
Over the past 50 years, service trips have given me the opportunity to help protect and restore vulnerable areas around the world. In 2007, I read an article about the Scottish non-profit, Trees for Life, in National Geographic Adventure magazine. Trees for Life has been working to reforest the Scottish Highlands since 1989. Sadly, much…
A Human Waste Problem! Probably not the first thought that came to your mind, right? Seriously, we hikers love remote wilderness areas. But our love has an impact. At Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia, more than 150,000 visitors make an impact each year. For more than ten years, ConservationVIP® volunteers have been repairing…
What kind of person would spend more than ten years volunteering thousands of hours for an environmental nonprofit, without drawing attention to himself and his contributions? We have such a person in our organization, and I decided this is the right time to call him out. Behind his back some people have called him John…