Volunteer News
Issue #5
October, 2011 

You are the only person on this earth who can use your ability.
 ~Anonymous

WEBSITE LAUNCH
Our new website is up and running!  Please visit www.osoyoosmuseum.ca. Check back often to find out more about current and upcoming exhibits and events.
AND… you can join the Osoyoos & District Museum and Archives Group on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/groups/265357340162864/

EVENTS
Fall Social & Volunteer Appreciation
Tuesday, October 11, 2011. 2-4pm 
Please join us for a casual afternoon, all members welcome.  Coffee, tea, and treats will be provided. 

Cemetery Tour
Saturday, October 15, 2011
1-3pm, $5.00/person
Join Ken Favrholdt, for a two-hour tour focusing on the interconnections between our pioneers, where they lived and what they did for a living.  The tour will also include a visit to the 1861 Osoyoos Customs House site and a short visit to the fur brigade trail and old CPR railway bed.  Meet at the Lakeview Cemetery, register at Sonora Community Centre (250.495.6562). 

Festival of Trees at Nk’Mip Resort
November 18, 2011 – January 8, 2012
We will be decorating a tree at the 2011 Osoyoos Festival of Trees.  We will need some vintage decorations, if you have any you are not using please feel free to call us. 

Aviva Community Fund
The Osoyoos Museum has submitted an idea to the Aviva Community Fund competition.  The winner of this competition is determined by online votes.  Please support our ‘Project M-Box’.  For more information and voting: http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11467

FALL VOLUNTEERS
Some of you have asked why we need Volunteers at the Museum in the fall. That is a good question!

Although the summer season is over but there are still many visitors coming through.  Kara and I are becoming increasingly busy with various projects and volunteers at the front desk will help us remain focused in the office. We are also hoping, through new activities and programs, to attract more visitors in the shoulder seasons. We are also hoping to entice more school visits where we will need extra help when groups arrive. And then there are the Snowbirds – we may have more than one event for them this winter.

Volunteers will become increasingly important to our success as we progress to the work on our new building.   This is why we still need help not only to cover and meet and greet people but to take on other jobs. There are many tasks you can help us with – research on the computer downstairs, archival work, writing and conducting tours --  jobs which we will explain in detail.

Please don’t feel obligated to volunteer – it is your decision if you have the interest or the time. But we would like to encourage you to think about the many ways you could help. Feel free to talk to Doug Alexander (new Volunteer Coordinator), Kara or myself, as we enhance our volunteer program.

Ken Favrholdt, Curator

Volunteering can be an exciting, growing, enjoyable experience.  It is truly gratifying to serve a cause, practice one’s ideals, work with people, solve problems, see benefits, and know one had a hand in them.
            ~Harriet Naylor

Volunteer News
Issue #4
September 2011 

And that’s a wrap!  Summer might be over but September is going to be a busy month! 

EVENTS
Executive Director/Curator Ken Favrholdt will be touring throughout the Okanagan Valley (both in BC and Washington) presenting talks and tours highlighting the Fur Trade anniversary of 1811.  The Osoyoos event will be held on Thursday, September 22 from 7-9pm at the Seniors Centre.  Also, the new Fur Trade Exhibit, Travellers through this land, located in the museum will be open for viewing by September 15, 2011.

 We are hosting a fundraising workshop on Monday, September 12 at Sonora Centre.  This will be the first step towards raising the funds needed for the development of our new facility. 

 On Sunday, September 18 at 1pm, Ken Favrholdt will be conducting a walking tour of Osoyoos.  Registration is through Sonora Centre.

 The Museum is participating in the cross Canada event “Culture Days”, we will be hosting a ‘Hunt for History Open House’ on Saturday, October 1, 2011.  Please join us for this fun-filled afternoon.  Learn, explore, create and appreciate our local history!

 Mark Tuesday, October 11, 2011 on your caledars.  We will be having a ‘Volunteer Appreciation Fall Social’ at the Museum starting at 2pm. 

HOURS
Starting on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 the museum switched to our “winter” hours, Tuesday - Friday,10am – 2pm.     

GREAT GIFT IDEA  
Did you know that we are able to make prints of a number of our archival photos?  For $25.00 you receive an 11”x15” matted print.  Contact Ken Favrholdt or Kara Burton for more information.  We also have books available, and jewellery made and donated by our own Dorothy Fairbairn.  Of course you could also buy someone an Annual Membership!

STREET DANCES
As you may have read in the Osoyoos Times, Home Hardware donated $500 to the museum from the funds raised at the street dances this summer.  Be sure to say thank you next time you visit their store!

THANK YOU
Sadly, Mary Englesby has decided the time has come for her to step down as Volunteer Coordinator. Over the next few weeks we will be transitioning to a new coordinator, board member Doug Alexander has agreed to take on this task.  THANK YOU Mary for all your hard work over the last ten years, you certainly have made a difference.

We will continue to need volunteers throughout September and October, please let us know if you are available.

We appreciate the hours that you have contributed over the last few months.  It makes a big difference, to the functioning of the museum and our ability to serve our visitors.