Volunteers

Volunteers and their Tasks

The Museum hosts many different programs for the public that require assistance from volunteers. 

• Visitor Services volunteers interpret the Museum by providing tour orientations, special group presentations, assisting with school and senior group programs, and acting as a receptionist to the gift shop to provide information to the public. 
• Fund Raising and Special Events volunteers typically support special events, celebrations, festivals, or any event that is geared to raising money and/or awareness of the Museum and its mission. 
• Maintenance and Production volunteers help maintain the historic structure, assist with the fabrication of exhibits and address collections storage/space plan concerns. 
• Education Services volunteers work with the Museum’s mission to develop curriculum, special programming and train teachers in fire safety. 
• Exhibit and Collection volunteers are usually refereed to as Behind the Scenes volunteers. This is because their tasks are not usually with the public. They help in the library, archives, do primary research, and of course, assist with collections and exhibits. 
• Exhibit, Collection, Maintenance, and Production volunteers provide the technical support for the Museum.

Visitor Services

Visitor Services are concerned with the interpretation of the Museum, its programming, and of course, the visitors themselves. Volunteer tasks are geared toward explaining the Museum and what is available to the visitor. Tasks may include:

1. Group tour orientations
2. Leading seniors on guided tours
3. Leading special programs on exhibits, collections, etc…
4. Providing information to the visitor 

Visitor Service volunteers meet when needed for scheduled group tours or presentations, pre-scheduled hours to assist in the gift shop during busy periods, or for special exhibit openings. 

Fund Raising and Special Events

Fund raising and special event volunteers help to plan and support events that focus on raising money and/or awareness of the Museum and its mission. Volunteers assist in brain storming sessions to develop new ideas, planning events through a team approach that combines topics of public interest with the Museum’s mission and staffing the events. Tasks may include:

1. Attending planning meetings
2. Researching topics
3. Developing activities
4. Soliciting donations
5. Volunteer coordination
6. Space planning and layouts
7. Writing letters
8. Mailings
9. Creating press releases and flyer designs

Fund raising and special event volunteers meet when needed for planned scheduled events listed in the Calendar of Events. 

Maintenance and Production

Maintenance and production volunteers assist with the assessment of the historic structure’s condition and actively work on correcting the preservation issues and day-to-day maintenance associated with running a museum. These volunteers also help in the designing and build out of exhibits, educational structures and artifact storage. Tasks may include:

1. Light bulb changing
2. Window covering installation
3. Painting
4. Designing simple structures such as book stands, stairs, shelving, etc…
5. Fabrication of simple structures
6. Wood working
7. Plumbing repair
8. Cement repair
9. Electrical repair/simple wiring

Maintenance and production volunteers meet on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. until approximately 2 or 3 p.m. There are informal training programs given as needed and additional meeting times may be required to discuss design strategies. 

Education Services

Volunteers interested in educational services work with the Museum’s mission to develop curriculum and special programming that focuses on fire safety for schools and outreach programs. Programs address Colorado Model Standards by using sections on history, writing and fire prevention. Educational service goals change yearly as projects are developed and completed. The current projects include.

1. Outreach program using a traveling educational trailer
2. Senior traveling trunk program
3. Two traveling trunk programs for elementary students
4. Developing a teacher in-service day/open house 
5. Developing a day care in-service day/open house
6. Museum family back pack program
7. Developing Fire Safety Week and Burn Awareness Week programming

At the Denver Firefighters Museum, the Exhibit and Collection volunteers work together on projects because the two are so intimately tied together: exhibits are made up of the collection after all. Tasks that “Behind the Scenes” volunteers participate with include:

1. Cataloging Artifacts
2. Conservation of Artifacts
3. Condition Reports of Artifacts
4. Inventory of Collection
5. Developing Exhibits
6. Researching Exhibits
7. Installing Exhibits
8. Developing Artifact Rotation Themes 
9. Developing Exhibit Guides
10. Developing Touch Baskets

Exhibit and collection volunteers meet on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. until approximately 3 or 4 p.m. There will be a formal training program once a month that may include a video production, guest speakers, in-house training, handouts, or tours of other facilities. Because of the nature of the work, volunteers desiring this position are required to learn basic concepts of collections care from a volunteer training manual and pass an oral exam before being accepted in this position. 

Why You Should Get Involved…

to help a cause

to share a skill

to gain a skill 

to fill needed 

to get to know the community

to fill a gap

to make new friends

for fun

for therapy

to feel good

to do one’s share

to have an impact

to feel proud

to be challenged

to do something different

because you care about the community.  

 

Please fill out and bring or send us a volunteer application! (Click here to get one!)