• Our goals for these programs is to ensure a high level of maintenance in our public parks and spaces while allowing our limited staff to focus on more highly technical and skilled work.
  • These programs will provide residents with stewardship opportunities while helping to support community and individual mental health, connection, and purpose.

  1. View the Park Champ, Flower Bed Champ, or Litter Champ Program volunteer description. Program Descriptions
  2. Create an account in GivePulse. We require every individual to login and create an account on the city of Boulder’s Count-Me-In-Boulder volunteer system.
  3. Once you create an account, you will be directed to fill out the application, pick a location to volunteer, and sign the waiver.
  4. Someone will contact you within a week to confirm your registration and park assignment.
  5. Once confirmed and made an active participant in one of the Champ programs, you will be required to view the on-boarding training that can be found on your dashboard in your “To-Do” tab (under the blue Welcome banner) or in the “Courses” box found on the right-hand side of the page.

  • Volunteers should be able to commit to work independently between 1 – 3 hours per week for at least three months and up to a 6-month period, April – October.
  • We have quite a few volunteers who commit beyond the 6-month period and do this work all year long if their time allows.
  • Specific tasks like weeding, trash pick-up, debris removal and graffiti location and removal will be available to complete at any time within each week.
  • Volunteers may have the opportunity to work with staff at your adopted location or other locations that require a few extra hands for specific work. Usually, we give our Champs the first opportunity to help before opening these special projects up to the public.

Yes, any friends can volunteer with you but need to create an account on the volunteer management system called GivePulse. They will be registered under the same park and be responsible to log in their own volunteer hours after each visit and work done to the assigned park.

Yes. There will be a space to add the number of family members participating on the application as well as in the box provided when recording volunteer hours for each work session at the park.

  • The location may be full and already adopted. If so, you can be put on a waitlist and will be contacted when an opening is available.
  • The location may be in a “hazardous” zone, so will not be advertised or available. Some locations on the Boulder Creek corridor fall into this category.

Check the box on the application that says “Yikes, I don’t see my park." Then write in the park you would like to adopt. Within a week someone will contact you to let you know the status of the location you would like and may offer you an alternative location.

As a volunteer for the Flower bed Champ program, you will be responsible to maintain the flower bed on a weekly basis. This will entail weeding, pruning, and deadheading flowers and reporting any issues with watering or with the irrigation lines.

You may be invited to help the horticulture team on a day they have scheduled to do work in your adopted bed if you are available.

Planting flowers may not be needed or required in your adopted area. However, if you are interested in planting flowers there are opportunities available in other areas such as the Pearl Street Mall during May and October as well as other flower beds in town. Please inquire with volunteer services if you want to be notified about flower planting opportunities.

No. Wildflower seeds contain grasses and some seed that may be considered a species of weed. Wildflower seed packets may also contain seed not native to Colorado. Contact our horticulturist, Ashley Hanson at hansona@bouldercolorado.gov for recommendations.

Litter Champs will be responsible for the weekly cleanup of trash in your adopted park, path, or public space.

Park Champs will complete specific tasks, which might include picking up trash, weeding shrub and flower beds, debris removal, reporting vandalism, and anything else that is specific to that park or location. Tasks will be listed on your reporting page in Count-Me-In-Boulder.

Please report vandalism, hazards, hazardous materials, and the location using the Report an Issue website. Click on “Parks Information” in the topic area, click on “Parks Maintenance issues,” fill out the form, upload any pictures and then hit submit.

  • Bring a personal water bottle that is filled.
  • Wear clothes that can get dirty. Long pants and closed-toed shoes are required. Bring layers for changing weather.
  • Bring a hat, sunglasses, and wear sunscreen.
  • Bring a pair of work gloves.
  • Bring gardening tools such as knee pads and weeders.

  • Volunteer vests will be provided to wear while you are volunteering.
  • Supplies such as trash bags will be provided. However, trash bags are big (35 – 60-gal size) and you may want to use your own smaller bags for light trash.
  • Spray paint remover will be provided by our maintenance staff at a certain location to those volunteers trained in its removal. Those sensitive to chemicals should report the graffiti and leave the removal to staff.
  • Tools like trash tongs, weeders, kneeling pads and trowels may be borrowed for the season.
  • Gloves are also provided for volunteers to keep.
  • Tools and supplies will be available for pick-up at one or more of our recreation centers. These locations will be open during operating hours, most days of the week.

Volunteers may encounter hazardous materials in unhoused encampments, needles on the ground, or in containers of questionable liquids. Please stay clear of encampments and leave any suspect hazardous materials alone.

However, if any of the above items are found, please report them immediately by filling out the form on the Report an Issue website. Click on “Parks Information” in the topic area, click on “Parks Maintenance issues,” fill out the form, upload any pictures and then hit submit.

This will let staff know of the hazardous conditions so it can be taken care of quickly. Using the Inquire Boulder website to report hazards ensures that you will be notified when the hazard has been cleared. Note that hazards reported on the Count-Me-In-Boulder system as a maintenance request will be taken care of on a priority basis, but will not notify you of any actions taken.

Volunteers can report their completed hours after each completion of work in the park by logging into the GivePulse volunteer system.

You can record your hours under the “My Opportunities” tab on your dashboard.

NOTE: Before you can record any hours, any required on-boarding training or classes must be completed, or the system will not let you record hours. If you are having issues with this, please contact your volunteer representative for help.

All maintenance requests go to the park operations supervisor who is responsible for that location in a timely manner.

Maintenance requests are taken care of on a priority basis. If something reported is not being fixed, it usually means it is low on our priority list, or we do not have the capacity to take care of it at that moment.

You will NOT be contacted about a maintenance issue reported in Count-Me-In-Boulder. To receive an acknowledgement about a maintenance issue, report the issue through Report an Issue website. Click on “Parks Information” in the topic area, click on “Parks Maintenance issues,” fill out the form, upload any pictures and then hit submit. A ticket will be generated that helps us keep track of the issue, prompting us to fix them if we can, and then report back to the person who submitted the issue.

In GivePulse, go to the Opportunities Tab and click on the “Report Park Champs” link. This will bring you to the Details and Description of the adopted area. On the right-hand side of this page, you will see a box that has a staff contact. You can email that person by clicking on the email button below the name.