Volunteer Spotlight, Ronnie Coffman
Ronnie Coffman
Blue Spring State Park
Ronnie grew up and lives in Pennsylvania. He has been coming to Florida for over 15 years during the winter months for health reasons. He visited several Florida State Parks over the years, but, fell in love with Blue Spring State Park. Ronnie has loved being outdoors for as long as he can remember. Some of his passions are hiking, biking and viewing wildlife.
Ronnie was approached by a member of the Blue Spring State Park staff over 12 years ago about volunteer opportunities since he showed an interest in the welfare of the park. He chose to volunteer at Blue Spring State Park because of the natural beauty of the park along with the great staff. Ronnie is a great asset to the park. You can find him participating in everything from picking up trash to giving programs to helping with exotic removal. But, mostly you can find him in our parking lots making sure that our visitors are able to comfortably find a spot.
Ronnie’s favorite part about volunteering is manatee interpretation and interacting with our visitors. He is responsible for introducing our highly successful firefly program that attracts visitors from all over the world. He enjoys volunteering at a park where you can find rare species like the manatee and the Florida Scrub-Jay and helping with the annual manatee festival and firefly event.
The Blue Spring State Park staff is like family and is the main reason why Ronnie returns year after year as a Resident Volunteer. He has developed a great appreciation for helping our staff and visitors. We appreciate Ronnie for all that he does. The staff is always anticipating his return visit, even those that may not have met him yet.