NATURE, HISTORY AND HORTICULTURE IN FAIRFAX COUNTY
VOLUME 9, NO. 4 WINTER 2010
Developing Hidden Talents at Hidden Pond By Lori K. Weinraub, Park Authority Volunteer
One man’s work helps others find their career paths
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Dan Dutton always was interested in the outdoors, especially fishing. He remembers netting fish and crayfish during a program that McCaffrey led and how much he enjoyed it. He started volunteering at Hidden Pond in seventh grade and today, at age 26, Dutton is studying for a master’s degree in Fisheries and Marine Science at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. For many years and for a few Fairfax County youngsters, McCaffrey has been instrumental in pointing them in a direction they might not have otherwise considered or known about.
Learning about nature is fun Dutton said his parents encouraged his love of the outdoors but he added, “without Hidden Pond, I don’t think I would have followed those early tendencies. Mike made learning about nature fun.” McCaffrey initiated the youth volunteer program at Hidden Pond when he began working at the site in 1990. He launched it with eight kids caring for animals and helping with summer nature programs. Three stayed on past summer, and soon McCaffrey was making regular schedules. Today there are about 40 Hidden Pond
Photo courtesy of The Springfield Connection
Audrey Owens, a turtle biologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department, was a protégé of Hidden Pond Nature Center’s Mike McCaffrey.
s a child, Audrey Owens was crazy about reptiles — frogs, snakes, turtles, you name them. She thought that if you wanted to work with animals you had to be a veterinarian. Then she started volunteering at Hidden Pond Nature Center (HPNC) and met Assistant Manager Mike McCaffrey.
volunteers who do everything from clean reptile cages to greet visitors and run birthday parties. Dutton volunteered until he graduated from Edison High School. On breaks from Virginia Tech, where he studied fisheries science, he worked at Hidden Pond as a staff naturalist. Robert Muir is another vol-
unteer who stayed. He started Former Pohick Ranger Audrey Owens played Lupe, the Rainforest in 2000 as a seventh grader and Slug Queen, at Hidden Pond Nature volunteered until 2006. He later Center’s Slugfest in 1994.
moved to Washington state and, when he moved back to Fairfax County last December, he returned to HPNC and is now a paid naturalist.
The Right Stuff McCaffrey looks for kids who really want to be there and don’t mind getting dirty. Many start in the Pohick Rangers after-school program, which is geared toward 9- to 12-year-olds. If they have what McCaffrey calls “a knack,” they are asked to volunteer. He must know what he’s doing; about half of the seventh-graders stay into their high school years and beyond. Muir said McCaffrey gets involved with the young volunteers by doing things with them, such as gathering worms. “He talks the talk and walks the walk,” Muir said. continued on page 9
INSIDE . . . Holidays in the Parks
p Fairfax County Park Authority • Fairfax, VA 22035 • 703-324-8695 • FAX 703-324-3996 • TTY 703-803-3354 • www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/resources Winter 2010 1