Easy to Volunteer at PC

By Luke Shannon

Pete Cutter finds it easy to volunteer at a non-profit like this one. Perhaps the most ‘creative’ in his volunteering of anyone on campus, Pete thinks out of the box for the chimps.

Jolene

No description of Pete’s volunteering career can start without a mention of Jolene. Jolene is his alter-ego, a character he devised with Executive Director Ali Crumpacker to make BINGO nights more engaging.

As Jolene Goodall, Pete plays a clueless sister character of the famous primatologist Jane. Jolene is a clumsy, confidently incorrect BINGO host who Pete brings to life thanks to his history in acting!

“I was thinking about which of my actor friends could be this character,” Pete said. “And I thought, oh, why not me?”

Painting for Primates

Despite all the fun of Jolene, Pete serves as far more than an actor to Project Chimps. He has done plenty of diverse, fun work in beautifying campus and caring for the chimps.

The murals that paint the sides of the chimpanzee villas are some of the most obvious examples of this. They are beautifully detailed, but Pete said they were not easy to put up with so many chimps around.

The chimps are always free to enter since the villas are their homes, even if painting is going on. Chimp care specialists could try to lure the residents outside, but if they wanted to come in, they would come in. This made it tough to progress quickly on any of the huge mural works, but Pete stuck in there. You can now see his works covering Chateau A.

On-Campus Help

Aside from being a talented artist and actor, Pete has a background in sales, which he uses in the gift shop. He liked to organize things to raise as much money as possible for the chimps. After years of working in retail, he can hardly help himself from straightening and rearranging the items in here.

Pete also helped put in the bees by the maintenance shed. He said that the honey they get from them is just a side bonus: they mainly pollinate Project Harvest, the campus garden.

He has also done work in the kitchen and in chimp care. Pete truly is a man of the chimps! He has so many skills he uses to help in different ways.

Getting Involved

Now ‘mostly retired,’ in his own words, Pete was looking for something charitable to do with his time. He wanted a place he could trust would make the most of his commitment, and he said that he feels he has found that here.

“Its easy to volunteer your time or money to a place where you know they’re using it as efficiently as possible.”

Project Chimps is not a multinational charity – it puts every donated penny and minute of service to good, necessary use.

Before PC

For a short time, Pete worked as a supervisor in an animal hospital. He learned how to apply anesthetic and help direct the business operations, all at once! He brought some of this knowledge to Project Chimps.

“It gives you insight into how animals behave- they’re not gonna wait up for you,” he said.

Additionally, Pete’s career in retail and experience as an actor have each allowed him to have special roles in the non-profit. Pete said he was glad to find something he could contribute. He feels there could be opportunities for almost anyone who is interested.

Easy to Volunteer

Pete started volunteering in Oct. 2018, with his partner Michael closely following in early 2019.

They are not in every day, but their volunteering makes a difference in the lives of 81 chimps every time they come in.

You, too, can volunteer with Project Chimps, by submitting a volunteer application on the website, or by sending an email to volunteer@projectchimps.org.