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| Volunteer Spotlight: General Motors Employees |
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General Motors Employees Offer Time
to the Preserve
It's an employee's worst nightmare; it's everything any wage
earner dreads: the layoff. In most cases, getting laid off
means spending your now-free weekday mornings at the unemployment
office or reading the classified section of the newspaper,
highlighter in hand. Usually it means leaving the job you
love for a job you may have never thought of doing before.
However, in the case of three General Motors employees, getting
laid off turned into a very different situation.
Their GM truck plant in Linden, New Jersey had to lay off
1,100 people due to low market demand for their automobiles,
eliminating an entire shift. Among those let go were Al Jaremy
of Southampton, Pennsylvania, Dave Brown of Morrisville, New
Jersey and Hank Geisenhoner of New Hope, Pennsylvania. (Pictured
from left to right: Al, Dave and Hank) Two of them had been
GM employees for nearly 30 years each. After being unemployed
for the required 42 weeks, Dave, Hank, and Al went to GM's
job bank, where they chose the option of doing community service
at a non-profit organization while remaining on the payroll
at GM.
Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve was the natural choice
of a non-profit for Dave and Hank. They grew up with the Preserve,
and had fond memories of their time here. Dave even brought
his children to the Preserve when they were young. Dave and
Hank quickly applied and started work in March and May of
2003 respectively. Al had joined earlier, in February, after
he heard about the Preserve from GM.
The three have worked on any jobs that need to be done around
the Preserve, including propagation, administration, and general
grounds and trail maintenance. They work regular hours, Monday
through Friday. The Preserve counts their hours as volunteer
time, which really have added up. As of early February 2004,
Dave has worked a total of 1600+ hours, Al has worked 1375+
hours, and Hank worked nearly 400 hours (plus working during
special events such as Native Plant Sales and Community Day).
All told, the three have contributed nearly 3400 hours to
date, an incredible amount of work.
How does working at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve compare
to working at GM? "It's a real stress-buster," said
Al. "You get back to nature. Plus you're working for
a top-notch organization." Working in nature seemed more
suitable to Hank as well, as he told stories of a fast-paced
factory, where each job on the assembly line had to be finished
in less than a minute. A job at a wildflower preserve was
better in his opinion, "It has a lot more freedom,"
he said. Dave, who loves to garden at home, enjoys helping
out, "You try to make [the Preserve] nice for your community,"
he said.
By volunteering here at the Preserve, Al, Dave and Hank not
only have helped the community, but they've also helped themselves.
"You feel like a human being," said Dave. When asked
to name their favorite aspect of the Preserve, they all seemed
to agree: "I like the people and working outdoors,"
Hank said, as the others concurred. Even when their stint
at the Preserve is done, none of them rule out the possibility
of future volunteer work here. All of their hard work, basically
as full-time employees, is very much appreciated by the staff
and other volunteers.
- Jamie Hale and Donna Lacey
We know Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve volunteers are
a modest bunch, but you can help support and inspire volunteering
at the Preserve by telling your story! If you're a volunteer
at the Preserve who would like to share your experiences in
this feature on our website, please
fill out this form, or you can download
it  and
mail it in.
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