Volunteer's desire to learn never goes away

By Irena Milasinovic

Bill Beattie of Seminole volunteers in the lab for the Pinellas County Watershed Management in the mornings and enters data in the afternoon.

Seventy-one-year-old Bill Beattie spends his Fridays at the Pinellas County Watershed Management building just like any other Pinellas County employee. He moves with ease throughout the building and shifts from one task to the next. If it weren’t for his volunteer badge, he could be mistaken for a permanent county employee.

He spends a few hours a week "doing dishes at the lab," said Beattie. It involves cleaning and preparing sample and transport containers to eliminate the possibility of cross-contamination in the field. He has been certified to perform water sample collection field equipment preparation.

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