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The Aquarium could not run without the help of our amazing teams of volunteers! To thank them for their service, we invite active volunteers and interns to an appreciation party, Voluntern, every October. During this event, we grant awards to some of our fantastic volunteers, interns, and departments.
Hours of Service Awards are granted to our volunteers and interns based on the total number of hours served over the course of their lifetime.
Click to see 2025 Hours of Service Award Winners
7,000 Hours
Melissa Rocha
6,500 Hours
Daniel Dolan
Emily Goczalk
6,000 Hours
MaryAnne Barr
5,500 Hours
Sarah Capozzoli
5,000 Hours
Ken Lubar
3,500 Hours
Marisa Tardiani
3,000 Hours
Chloe Adler
Kelly McKeon
Tran Luu
2,500 Hours
Donna Brewer
Meghan Sawicki
Alan Marshall
Mark Weber
Amanda Claussen
2,000 Hours
Kenneth Oconnell
Caitlin FitzGerald
Alfred Kyrollos
Ally Wood
Stephanie Durgin
1,500 Hours
Elijah DaSilva
Amy Sharpe
Jessica Guido
Jennifer Tolton
Joseph Clum
Christine Sinnigen
Erin Turowski
Jennifer Thorne
1,000 Hours
Emily Martecchini
Maya Reynoso Williams
Scott Krieger
Katherine Priestley
Russell Hamilton
Keith Lynn
Elizabeth Swanson
Samantha Cobuzzi-Luecke
Becca Havemeyer
500 Hours
Richard Pelletier
Mia Seitz
Kai Kishimoto
Arden Dowd
Jessica McMurrer
Twyla Schran
Katie Russell
Carly McCreary
Sydney Loper
Meagan Odell
Carl Facer
Joe Hasenfus
Henry Zenzie
Erika Rodriguez
Jim Gordon
Bruce Gehrlein
Piper Maguire
Avery Roper
Dylan Gaffey
Zack Maxfield
Allie Cook
Jakob Curtis
Eleanor Bosacoma
Cleo Barker
Erin Edgren
Nathaniel King
Sean Mason
Jett Chapman
Ronan Clifford
250 Hours
Connar Calhoun
Morgan Scola
Stephanie Lopez
Asher Tulsky
Collin Cheung
Sarah Metz
Brenna O'Brien
Edward Weiss
Kendall Tremblay
MIchelle Galante
Aidan Thorp
Eleanor Horvath
Dacey Forward
Jahniya Paul
Max Langer
Eva Fossi
Raven Ocasio
Matthew Stahura
Leah Bird
Susan Tan
Kaylee DaRosa
Jake Jesurum
Varsha Ravikumar
Eva Paniagua
Brant Ballantyne
Juliana Dudziak
Margot Gagnon
Gwendolyn Moon
Chris Pierson
Moksh Jhawer
Victoria Haghighi
Anna Niezrecki
Sydney Dutton
Ben Tang
Ellen Stanton
Robert Rodgers
Iman Shaikh
Lexi Roberts
Tyler Rondinelli
John Tuminello
Jess Thompson
Alejandra Rodriguez Barquero
Jakob Curtis
Leighton Graham
Kaila Collins
Eunice Park
Kalina Miller
Patricia McCauley
Alessia Chavez Flores
Madeline Elkin
Kent Ellis
Alexandra Bronfin
Christin Eigenmann
Emily Doherty
Hannah Fixson
Janet Mozes
Joseph Collins
Kirstin Gray
Camryn Martinson
Richard Jegorow
Cassidy Wiersdorf
Thayna DeCamargo
Eleanor Bosacoma
Charlie Gagnon
Madelyn Asher
Grace McNally
Julia Norton
Cleo Barker
Steven Paine
Sarah Goodman
Clark Harris
Ainsleigh Powers
Beth Hage
Emily Lovett
Erin Edgren
Nathaniel King
Trudi Frost
Junwon Jang
Brianna Roche
Brook Lesikar
Bob McCauley
Grace Gaucher
Collin Rydecki
Alexandria Frascone
Katie Golden
Erin Besancon
Aleigh Rowe
Mikayla Gillum
Robyn Hamann
Brandon Chyi
Brianna Zaccheus
Joseph McGee
Eman Khwaja
Rebecca Arey
Leighanna Facey
Pascale Schmidt
Tom Whiteford
Laurie Nelson
Madison Pacino
Sean Mason
Jett Chapman
Mariyah Wright
Ashlyn Natori
Rebecca Pinto
Julia Serra
Brianna Hughes
Bailey Hughes
Camryn Koester
Emily Short
Ronan Clifford
Aiden Perham
Chris Rohland
Years of Service Awards are granted to our volunteers and interns based on the total number of years they have been a volunteer at the Aquarium.
Click to see 2025 Years of Service Award Winners
20+ Years of Service
Ken Lubar - 35 years
Bill McWeeny - 35 years
Daniel Dolan - 34 years
Eleanor Davison - 34 years
Mark Murray - 31 years
Janet Mozes - 29 years
Alicia Lenci - 29 years
Marsha Turin - 27 years
Melissa Rocha - 25 years
Mike Whyte - 24 years
Sarah Capozzoli - 23 years
Kathy Gorman - 22 years
Dave Novak - 21 years
MaryAnne Barr - 20 years
15 Years of Service
Goldie Freeman
Libna Ramos
David Tomey
10 Years of Service
Rachel Baum
Chris Sheehan
Jennifer Watters
Jenna Kosmo
Luigi "Rob" Cuddi
Ivy Rubeck
Tran Luu
Christopher Watt
Samuel Weaver
Tina Donnarummo
Denise Morgan
5 Years of Service
Deb Greenstein
Charlotte Clark
Linda Antonucci
Jennifer Tolton
Ricky Fonseca
Terri Weber
Gold Level Service Awards are a national-level of recognition for volunteers that served over 500 hours in a single year.
*For Voluntern 2025, citations from the Office of Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey replaced the AmeriCorps certificate.
Click to see 2025 Gold Level Service Award Winners
Eleanor Bosacoma
Alessia Chavez Flores
Nathaniel King
Erin Edgren
Jakob Curtis
Ronan Clifford
Maya Reynoso Williams
Return to topLifetime Achievement Awards are given to individuals that have served more than 4,000 hours over the course of their lifetime to volunteering at the Aquarium.
*We have had no Lifetime Achievement Award Winners since 2022
Click to see 2022 Lifetime Achievment Award Winners
MaryAnne Barr
Ken Lubar
The Unsung Hero Award was created to acknowledge a few tried and true volunteers who generally fly under our radar and may not otherwise receive specialized recognition during Voluntern. After nominees are screened by a number of groups, including partner institutions, the final winner is chosen by our supervisor liason group portion of Voluntern.
Click to see our 2025 Unsung Hero Award Winner
Donna Brewer, Giant Ocean Tank Volunteer
The Supervisor of the Year is awarded to a volunteer/intern supervisor that goes above and beyond to provide an outstanding experience for their charges. Supervisors are nominated by their volunteers and interns and chosen based on the quantity and quality of these nominations, as well as a number of other factors.
Click to see our 2025 Supervisor of the Year
Colin McIntire
The Susie Buttrick Award provides the opportunity for a department to enrich their volunteers’/interns’ experiences at the New England Aquarium. This grant is awarded to a department based on a number of criteria, namely one that is seeking to develop a thoughtful, impactful recognition program that will benefit current and future volunteers and interns.
Click to see our 2025 Susie Buttrick Awardee and Plan
Conservation Learning! Volunteers value learning and growing as interpreters, and one of the best ways to do so is to trial novel biofacts. This helps provide volunteers with direction during their self-guided learning time, gives them opportunities to differentiate their training based on their own interests, and pushes them to interact with guests in areas they may not have explored otherwise. While the biofact collection has many opportunities to discuss species groups like elasmobranch and marine mammals, it lacks depth in bony fishes. Building out this section of the collection would improve the experience to interpretation and engagement volunteers. Additionally, novel art materials give volunteers a new way to be hands on with interpretation and practice a currently untapped skill set.
The live blue Service Corps Most Dedicated Award is given to a volunteer that puts in countless hours into one or more of our LBSC Skills positions, such as the Penguin Wellbeing Monitor or Quincy Commissary.
Click to see our 2025 LBSC Most Dedicated Winner
Ellen Stanton, Quincy Commissary Volunteer!
Voluntern has been going on for a long time! You can find our archive of past years' awards here.
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