The Power of the Volunteer

For the past several years I've worked at a living history museum called The Historic Village at Allaire. The museum re-creates life in New Jersey during the 1830's- a time of peace and burgeoning industry. Fairly recently I received a promotion and became the Media and Volunteer Coordinator. Under the new responsibilities came the job of supervising over 200 volunteers. The job covers everything from volunteer recruitment to training, mentoring programs for children, internship programs for college students, and more. With the exception of a small, core group of staff, the museum is operated entirely through the dedication of volunteers ages anywhere from six to ninety-six. 

It's a fairly daunting prospect to be "in charge" (I hate that phrase) of such a group. Our volunteers are the ones who dress up and perform at events, they help fund raise, they do historic research; it's all-encompassing. As with most non-profits, the people who volunteer at Allaire are beyond dedicated and passionate about what they are presenting. Recently we've started reaching out to the public- to get them involved in our Village as well. So far it has been incredibly successful and we are thrilled that our visitors have become part of the "family". 

As any New Jerseyan is aware of, the Shore was hit hard during Hurricane Sandy. The Village escaped fairly unscathed- we suffered extensive tree damage but all of our historic buildings made it out with minimal damage. The park was shut down for several weeks due to the absolute mess of the grounds. Up in the office we were worried that our 19th Century Thanksgiving event would have to be cancelled. 

In between the storm and the event we received numerous calls and emails asking us if we were still going to present the event. We decided to try. So we put out an email to our volunteer base, asking if they would like to help clean up the Village the Saturday before our event. We expected maybe 10 or 12 of our volunteers to help out. What we didn't expect was that word spread- fast. When Saturday morning came around we found over sixty people- volunteers, patrons of the Village, and random people, armed with rakes, tarps, and good cheer, wanting to help.

Many of these people had suffered damage to their own homes and businesses, yet took time out of their lives to spend that Saturday helping our Village. I'm not an overly emotional person but when I saw all of those people I wanted to cry. In four hours, the Village went from being a minefield of tree branches and debris, to the beautiful park it has always been. And the next day we were able to present our 19th Century Thanksgiving. And we had much to be thankful.

At the risk of sounding overly nostalgic, when someone says that there is no sense of community anymore, I know that's not true. How many businesses opened their doors to feed communities during Sandy? How many people helped clean out a neighbor's home? One woman's family drove all the way from Pennsylvania to help rake up leaves for us. It's a small job and not very glamorous but it really meant everything. Volunteers are the very special people who put others first, who don't think about themselves enough, who give and give and give. We really can't thank them enough.