The Gift of Time
By: Robin Waites, Historic Columbia
When I first joined the staff at Historic Columbia in 2002, one of my jobs was to resuscitate the print newsletter – yes, we were only doing print newsletters 20 years ago. I was looking for stories and visited the Robert Mills Site to take photographs of the property – yes, I was using a film camera. I came upon a small group of folks working at the Henderson Street entrance. Members of the Iris Garden Club: Pat Setzer, Margaret Wilson, and a house museum guide, Bill Carson, were installing shrubs and flowers on both sides of the gate. As this was the first impression of visitors to Historic Columbia, this team of volunteers took it upon themselves to spruce up the place.
This early encounter was not an anomaly, but an example of the level of engagement and ownership of HC volunteers in the early 2000s. With a full-time staff of six, volunteers were involved in every aspect of the Historic Columbia operation: giving tours, assisting with the shop, cleaning and decorating the house museums, coordinating and working public programs, assisting with public relations, and governing. As an organization that was established in 1961 and run by volunteers, this was a natural progression.
With the considerable growth and change over 20 years, the volunteer program has also shifted. While the day-to-day operations are managed by staff, volunteers remain key to the success of Historic Columbia. Still today, interpretive guides serve as key ambassadors for HC and the house museum experience. Not only do they share the stories of the sites, but they interact on a personal level with our guests who are visiting from out of area. They are often the face, voice, and personality of our organization.
This responsibility is akin to the work of members of the board of trustees, although board members’ ambassadorship is more often with the community such as elected officials, donors, and corporate executives, board members not only govern the organization by represent us to the broader public locally. The board of trustees leadership is further supported by the HC Advisory Council and the Palladium Board, the latter of which coordinates some of HC’s most engaging programs and successful fundraising events.
Since the redevelopment of the 14 acres of gardens, volunteers have become central to the success of the endeavor to interpret 200 years of landscape history. The “garden crew” who commit two days/week, several hours to weed, plant, rake, and tend, enables our small staff to keep up with an otherwise unmanageable amount of work. Similar to that small crew of volunteers in 2002, this group is committed to ensuring that visitors to HC have an experience that leaves them impressed and amazed from the moment they enter the gates of any property.
While we have metrics for volunteer hours to quantify the contributions of each of these groups and the individuals within, this data does not do justice to the impact they have on the organization. We simply would not be who we are today without the generations of people who have and continue to support Historic Columbia. On this month of Volunteer Appreciation – we acknowledge these gifts and say – Thank You.