Helping Hands: How the Park Service’s Volunteers Got Their Program — and Their Uniforms

Volunteers don’t wear the National Park Service’s standard uniform, but they are a vital part of how the parks run. The Volunteers-in-Parks (VIP) program, begun in December 1970 and expected to be modest, quickly became essential. This entry in the NPS History Collection’s 50 Nifty Finds series traces the program — and how its volunteers came to be recognized by what they wear.

An idea from the Park Service family

The earliest NPS volunteers were the wives of rangers, custodians and superintendents, who put in countless unpaid hours; when the Park Service hired a married man, it often got two workers for the price of one. Fittingly, the idea for a formal program came from Helen Hartzog, wife of Director George B. Hartzog Jr. She later recalled that people didn’t want to retire from the Park Service — it was a family, and leaving meant leaving that family — so she proposed doing something about it, and her husband took up the idea.

George and Helen Hartzog, creators of the VIP program, October 1964. NPS History Collection photo by M. Woodbridge Williams.

It took legislation. Until then, citizens who donated services had to waive the government’s liability for their injuries and accept personal liability for harm they caused — a burden, Director Hartzog told Congress, that should be lifted. Unions worried volunteers might replace employees; Hartzog promised they would not, and the Volunteers in the Parks Act of 1969 (now 54 U.S. Code § 102301) said so: volunteers may not displace any employee. The law let the Park Service recruit, train and support volunteers “in aid of interpretive functions and other visitor services or activities,” but not for hazardous duty, law enforcement or policymaking.

An instant success

The NPS hoped to find 300 volunteers in the first year. Instead, 900 signed up in the first six months, and within two years more than 6,000 were working in parks. From December 1970 through March 1973 they gave 427,515 hours. By 1973, Director Ronald H. Walker wrote, volunteers almost equaled the number of permanent employees.

Early volunteer vest designed by Independence National Historical Park. Worn by Addie-Lou Cawood from ca. 1974-1991. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 2364)

In fiscal 1974, more than 5,000 VIPs served in 145 park areas, giving over 306,000 hours — 48% in living history, 24% in other interpretation, 16% in resource management and 12% in other work. Most lived near the parks they served. Maintenance was off-limits, not by law but by the Park Service’s promise to Congress and the unions.

Dressing the volunteers

As the program grew, visitors needed to tell volunteers from employees.

Khaki volunteer shirt with patch worn by Ken Greenspan at Sequoia National Park, ca. 1994-2003. (NPS History Collection, HFCA-02069)

NPS green volunteer vests. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 602, HFCA-01020)

VIP vests, introduced in 1975. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 948, HFCA 768)

Early volunteer nametags didn't include the person's name. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 1057)

NPS volunteer patch introduced in 1974. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 947)

The “pop-on,” the first NPS volunteer uniform. NPS History Collection.

Volunteer Joseph Frankeau in the men’s gold vest, with the volunteer patch and a green name tag. NPS History Collection.

Parks improvised too: fluorescent green-and-white vests at Wolf Trap Farm Park, blue smocks at the Frederick Law Olmsted site, and at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site in 1984, shirts bearing a logo of Dr. King growing out of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood.

Racing forward

In 1981, 8,326 volunteers gave 503,000 hours. As budgets shrank in the 1980s, Director Russell E. Dickenson lifted the ban on volunteer maintenance in 1982 — while still barring volunteers from replacing paid staff; the 1982 handbook confined them to backlog work that would otherwise go undone. By 1984 there were 28,000 volunteers; in 1985 they gave more than 1.5 million hours; in 1988 more than 44,000 people joined. In 1986 Director William Penn Mott Jr. backed legislation to let volunteers collect entrance fees for the first time, and an international volunteer program followed. In 1989 Director James M. Ridenour launched “Mather’s Volunteers,” inviting employees to volunteer at other parks on their vacations.

VIP name tag design sample with recognition bar for 100 hours of service, 2004. (NPS History Collection, HFCA 2356, HFCA 2353)

The 2004 volunteer and Master Ranger Corps patches. NPS History Collection.

In retirement, the Hartzogs gave to the National Park Foundation in 2001 to create awards for outstanding volunteer service, now the Excellence in Volunteerism Award. Volunteers remain essential: in 2023, more than 123,000 gave over 3.7 million hours.

Sources

Based on "50 Nifty Finds #40: Helping Hands," NPS History Collection, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain, with Helen Hartzog’s recollection rewritten in hubnx’s own words. The source’s “Frederick Law Olmstead” is corrected to Olmsted. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.