More Than Just a Number – Celebrating Our Volunteers

April is one of favorite months of the year! We participate in National Volunteer Week (April 20-26) and have the opportunity to recognize and celebrate the thousands of hours our volunteers dedicate to the museum – that’s 3,573 hours in 2024 to be exact! And thats 99 volunteers working in over 10 different roles.

We love talking data. It helps us to measure our impact and quantify how we are putting our mission and values into practice. While numbers are important, they are not everything. Our volunteers are more than just a number – more than the number of tours they lead, the number of bankers boxes they organize, the number of words they transcribe, the number of guests they welcome, the number of dollars they help raise, the number of objects they catalogue – so. many. numbers. 

You can’t really quantify joy, or “a-ha” moments, or relief from staff that we have front desk coverage, or the fact that we know the art in the 50% of the Story exhibit is being looked after and celebrated. It would be impossible to count all the inspiring moments, the kind greetings and “how are you today?” or “how can I help?” interactions. How about all the enthusiastic conversations, sharing what the museum means to them, and why they volunteer? What about the teen Junior Docents who don’t take the summers off from learning and growing – but use their brains and their hands to give back to their communities? There are so many stories and so many ways to express the ways our volunteers make a difference. A number could never fully encapsulate their work.