Whether you are new to the community, or a long-time resident, consider volunteering at a museum or heritage organization to learn about your community’s history while you meet new friends.
As the population of the Okanagan grows and the landscape changes, it can sometimes be challenging to develop or maintain that sense of place that creates a community. An awareness of community history will help develop or recreate that sense of place which makes volunteering so personally rewarding.
Museums and heritage sites are more than just collections of objects or buildings, they are the accumulated history of lives lived, the stories and personal histories that shaped our community.
This history is central to what our community is today.
At the Lake Country Museum and Archives, our volunteers range in age from teens to retirees, those who are brand new to the community and want to learn more about their new home, and others whose parents or grandparents settled here long ago.
They all share at least one thing in common—a love of history.
Working with the artefacts, old photographs and documents that tell the story of our past gives our volunteers that sense of place and feeling of being part of a community. As they learn more, volunteers are encouraged to get to know the collections and perhaps continue with personal research.
Learn about your community’s history and make new friends at the Lake Country Museum and Archives.
Volunteer positions include a wide range of opportunities to utilize current skills and learn new ones, such as historical research and writing, cataloguing artefacts and archival materials, assisting with exhibitions, assisting with tours and events, conducting oral history interviews, and working with community-based projects.
To find out more about volunteer opportunities at the Lake Country Museum and Archives, please visit our website at www.lakecountrymuseum.com or phone 250-766-0111.
Shannon Jorgenson is the manager of the Lake Country Museum and Archives.
