April is National Volunteer Month, a time to recognize and celebrate the WMODA volunteers. In our reopening year, these sterling supporters have served as Gallery Guides, greeters, demonstrating artists, administrators, and even gardeners. Last year, “Flipper” Julio Difilippo clocked the most volunteer hours. Like Chihuly, he loves gardens and has never met a color he doesn’t like! We couldn’t do it without you all!
Most mornings, before the museum opens, Flipper is to be found outside WMODA pruning the foliage and clearing debris from the parking lots. Over the last few years, he has transformed the overgrown grounds surrounding the museum into a more manageable landscape. Many visitors will have met Flipper at our special events, dressed in his dapper multi-colored outfits, and directing traffic.
George Hawthorn, husband of Louise and our long-standing “voluntold,” continues to work in the museum and remotely in London on a multitude of Collections Management tasks. He loves working in Photoshop and assists with editing images for publication in the newsletter and for database recording. He also helps to create video clips of special events. We always need extra help for behind-the-scenes administrative tasks, including data entry and photo editing.
Ed Rock, a retired university librarian, is one of our most knowledgeable Gallery Guides, and recently shared his enthusiasm for the Stars of the Victorian Gallery at our second “Walk-in Wednesday.” He researched his new heroes of the pottery industry in the 19th century, giving fascinating insights and displaying images of them during his guided tour. We look forward to welcoming more volunteers to train as Gallery Guides and follow Ed’s inspired lead in sharing their passion.
Alain Montour, a retired actuary from Canada, has returned to the museum for a new season to catalog the library donated by Sharon Koskoff of the Art Deco Society of the Palm Beaches. He is often seen as a “live” exhibit, diligently working in the new Art Deco library. Nia Green, our student volunteer, and Mary Brown also helped enormously with sorting the library and archive materials. Mary also loves greeting guests in the Ardmore Safari for the Soul Gallery, one of her favorite museum exhibits.
The Ardmore gallery is a favorite among many of our Gallery Guides, who help educate our visitors and enhance their museum experience. Shirley Ginter, Claudia Bailley, and Wendy Chercass particularly enjoy telling guests the story of this amazing South African studio pottery. They often assist guests with their purchases in the Ardmore Design Shop and Studio Collection, which helps generate revenue for our 501 (c) (3) museum. We are currently seeking more volunteers to serve as Gallery Guides and assist in our Museum Shop sales, especially on weekends.
Mercedes Hardisson, Carol Weir Asquith, Gerri Sant and Dale King are often stationed in the Hot Glass Gallery, where they enjoy greeting our visitors and seeing their first impressions. They introduce our cell phone audio tour and scavenger hunt activities and provide general assistance. Mercedes makes her volunteer session extra special by bringing her delicious baked treats for the staff to enjoy! Greeting visitors on arrival, helping with orientation, creating wonderful first impressions, and encouraging reviews on Google and TripAdvisor are crucial responsibilities at WMODA, and we hope more volunteers will join us in Visitor Services.
The Gallery Guides have also been having fun learning about our new Splash! exhibition from our curator, Louise Irvine. Stuart Herzburn and Ed Rock ignored warnings about smiling at crocodiles and touching the exhibits! They are introducing guests (and themselves!) to the mermaid-tail photo opportunity, which is loaned by Ocean Rescue Alliance International. Guests of all ages commemorate their visit to WMODA as mermaids and mermen, while discovering all the great work ORAI and the 1,000 Mermaids Project are doing to save Florida’s coral reefs.
Judy Cooper, who is a part-time special education teacher, is great at working with children in the museum and often helps with arts-and-crafts activities, notably carnival mask-making and the River of Glass and Light project, which involves decorating coffee filters inspired by Chihuly’s Macchia vessels. Demonstrations by artists in our community are a highlight of our programs, and we are particularly grateful to Mirela Popovici and Alex Meiklejohn for volunteering regularly at our events.
WMODA board members, led by Ken Evans, also give generously of their time and energy to support the museum’s mission, and we thank them all. If you are interested in learning more about volunteering at WMODA, contact Kimberly Sheridan, our Volunteer Services Manager, to make an appointment. Email kimberly@wmoda.com or call 954-376-6690.
Read more about volunteering at WMODA
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