Volunteer Spotlight, John Creighton & Kristie Lever
John Creighton & Kristie Lever
Lake Talquin State Park
Kristie is an energetic and compassionate person with an easy and infectious laugh, making interactions with both park staff and visitors delightful. She brings experience in teaching and working with children. She has a background in facilitating campers on field trips in South Florida state parks.
While John is not a big talker, he is skilled and dependable for any maintenance task. Together, John and Kristie are able to provide a variety of necessary assets to any state park.
Their first state park resident volunteer placement was at Lake Talquin. Unfortunately, they were forced to evacuate from Hurricane Michael’s path. Shortly after the storm passed, Park Ranger Billy Harrison got the call that they were at the gate and ready to work to get the park back in shape and open for the public. Working along with the park staff, the pair helped the park reopen in only four weeks.
Returning in 2019, John and Kristie hit the Lake Talquin punch list running. Two of their biggest accomplishments were installing the new park entrance sign and redesigning the entrance with new fencing. Other significant improvement projects were mulching the trail, and cleaning, organizing and installing a clothes dryer at the resident volunteer site. Additionally, there was the task of splitting many cords of wood for the cooking shelter rentals.