Want to help?
Volunteers are essential to the success of the Southwest Environmental Center. Whether it is writing letters to the editor, stuffing envelopes, or attending agency meetings, we cannot do our work without your support. Hours are very flexible. Send us an email if you're interested in setting aside a couple hours a week or a time once a month to help out with any of the following activities:
Volunteer Opportunities
Creative
- Front window
- Help us regularly update and re-decorate our front window display!
- Event planning
- Eco-Shop
- Help us restock, organize, and decorate our Eco Shop
- Photography
- Photograph our events, wild areas at risk, or wildlife for use on our website and social media
Outdoor
- La Mancha
- Organize trash clean-ups and volunteer work days
- Back by Noon
- Love hiking? Be the SWEC Liaison for our Back by Noon outings
- Canvassing
- Put up flyers around town advertising upcoming events
- Farmer's Market tabling
Administrative
- Data Entry
- Organize Library
- Organize Back Room
- Front Desk
- Phone banking
- Mailings
- Event Setup
Technical
- Computer help
- Data analytics
Interested in organizing on issues and being a part of our campaigns? Email our Field Organizer Amanda Munro.
Volunteer spotlight: Kris and Gil Dovalina
Above: Kris and Gil Dovalina after a long weekend of fence building to restore strong wolf habitat in the Gila National Wilderness.
Kris and Gil are transplants from California. They have loved New Mexico for over thirty years and swore that this was going to be their retirement home. In 2009, it happened. Las Cruces had all they wanted in their community: a University, library, bookstores, community theaters, a community band, summer concerts in the park and the Southwest Environmental Center. They have answered the volunteer call in a variety of ways since moving here. They helped local candidates and created awareness for citizens ballot initiatives, they've worked with Habitat for Humanity, and they have been invaluable to SWEC by helping with with "Raft the Rio" as well as activities like protesting the coyote killing contests, supporting the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument, mending fences in the Gila, and supporting a strong wolf habitat. They fell in love with wolves the first night they heard them howling while camping in the Luna area in 2009, and feel strongly about the successful recovery of the Mexican Gray Wolf in the Southwest. Kris is a retired teacher of twenty-six years and Gil is a retired Parks and Recreation Manager. New Mexico has provided Kris and Gil with a continued source of adventure, from touring the state and investigating its history, to kayaking the rivers and lakes, backpacking in wilderness areas, or just enjoying her daily beauty.
They deeply care for the wildlife and wild places of the Southwest, and are tireless in their efforts to preserve, and protect the wild and raw beauty of New Mexico.
