Volunteer Shout-out!

The Pitt Meadows Museum is a busy hub of information, artistic expression and hands-on education and it wouldn't be possible without our amazing crew of Volunteers who continually give their time, expertise and guidance to our projects.

Volunteers: Here’s to You

Julia Tomanova worked as a hotel manager in Bratislava, Slovakia, before moving to Canada where she switched gears to offer us a wide range of skills for several months while searching for her dream job. Her duties here ranged from scanning and accessioning hundreds of photos to baking cakes, bringing us jars of plum jam, dandelion honey and other preserves and making decorations throughout our Centennial year. Julia was always valued for her creative critique and could be relied upon to lend a helping hand regardless of the task, even getting in there and preparing our 2014 bean and sunflower garden! Thanks, Julia for your countless hours of help and for lending us your creative touch to everything you helped us with at the museum!

Have you seen our beautiful garden lately? Thanks to the countless hours of dedicated work from Janet Symonds our yard is in tip-top shape. Janet has donated many beautiful plants to help spruce up our yard and can be found early in the morning raking leaves, weeding, planting bulbs and plants throughout the year. Her love and dedication is shown through our seasonal blooms each Spring and Summer. Janet’s skills range far and wide, she has even created a beautiful handmade commemorative quilt for us that is on display in our museum. Thank you Janet for volunteering here with us at the Pitt Meadows Museum. Our garden has never looked better.

Mark Chen has donated numerous hours of his time by adding a technological touch to our museum and Facebook page by creating the Pitt Meadows Museum Podcast. Mark has been responsible for collecting information and oral histories from some of the citizens of our community. He has digitized this information and updated several other interviews into a format that is easily accessible to the public.

There are things that go bump here in the night and thanks to the Pacific Coast Paranormal Research & Investigation Society we have captured some of these occurrences in photographs. Donna, Dorothy, Claus and Paul from the PCPRIS can be found volunteering their time and services here at the Pitt Meadows Museum on several occasions throughout the year including Pitt Meadows Day in June, Museum After Dark in October and to complete their annual investigation to collect evidence and data for their research. Come by the museum and check out our ghost log or visit our Pitt Meadows Museum YouTube channel to see some of the footage taken.

Elizabeth Brooke has dedicated her time to several ongoing projects here at the Museum. Currently, she is focusing her efforts on building our Research Library through gathering past and present articles as well as organizing the files to be more useable to researchers and the public. A daughter of the dairy industry, she is passionate about our local farm history and uses her connections and experience to expand the Museum’s knowledge on the topic.

Sandra Caddo is the Vice President of the Pitt Meadows Heritage and Museum Society and has been an active member since 1990. She is currently working on entering the Frances Stevens Weather Calendars from the 1940s through the 1960s into our database as well as preparing reference files to be added to our Research Library. We thank her for always giving her time, stories, coffee and doggy treats on her Thursday afternoon Volunteer Shift.

Have you noticed the addition to our fence outside the museum? Thanks to Ken Ramsden and his endless hours of creation with a wood saw and router we were able to complete our 2014 Memory Band. This project included a vast amount of work including; cutting, sanding, engraving, staining and installing these wooden boards to our fence. Ken also helped us create wooden hat stands for our 2014 “Hatty Birthday” exhibit and is now lending his expertise by creating new signage for the displays of our agriculture machines. Thank you Ken for all of your help and for lending us your skills and tools over the years.

Jordan Turner and his dog Alf can always be counted on to fire up the forge at the Hoffmann & Son Site as our resident blacksmith for the day. Jordon has attended many events over the years for the Pitt Meadows Museum including; Pitt Meadows Day, Museum After Dark (in the haunted forge) and from time to time opening the Hoffmann and Son shop on Sundays. He is currently involved in hand-forging custom and ceremonial knives that are secured to wooden or antler handles. Jordan also designs, cuts, shapes and dyes each sheath for the completed knives. You can see some examples of his beautifully crafted work on his website www.jordanturner.ca

Daniel Pearson, Luke Detheridge and John Adolph are occasional Blacksmiths here at the Museum. Daniel is a local young man with an interest in Smithing who can be found Volunteering his time on Pitt Meadows Day. Luke is a Vancouver-based Visual Artist who likes to come and work in the forge on special occasions like Museum After Dark and John is a local expert who spent his career in Industrial Welding and Smithing and now likes to make decorative pieces.

Jim Scott, Tony Wheeler and Amrit Singh can also be seen in Hans Hoffmann’s machine shop. You can find them here every Pitt Meadows Day running the machines and giving demonstrations of the various multicoloured engines throughout the shop. Their time and dedication to these tasks help keep the machines in good working order, preventing them from seizing up and ensuring their use for many years to come.

Katherine, Tatiana, Crystal and Candyce have helped add decor to the Pitt Meadows Museum. The girls have collaborated with several other children who visit us on Museum Sundays to create a mural that depicts forest life here in Pitt Meadows. This mural will be installed outside on our garage at Pitt Meadows Day 2015 for all to enjoy. Thanks, girls for your artistic work.

Sadi, Maggie, Emmie, Tess and Neve are always up for anything fun happening at the museum. They are the Young Curators at the Pitt Meadows Museum and are often found at events such as Pitt Meadows Day, Museum After Dark and our Heritage Tea. They are the first ones to greet visitors and are usually the last to leave from any of our events during the year. These girls add excitement and energy to our work days every time they come for a visit. Currently, they have been putting many hours of their time into helping create Balloonhead Productions which involves making recordings of skits and videos of their adventures around the museum. You can also find them collaborating with other volunteers on our mural project. Thanks, girls for all your help.

There are numerous volunteers that can be seen here at the museum throughout the year. Their assistance has helped us to create fabulous events and organize archives and workstations. We would like to thank the following; Annette Code (President of our Society),Em Warner, Theresa Flynn, Eileen Karula, Jean Abbott, Sylvia Thompkins, Frances Speakman, Joe Antalek, Douglas Miller, Arlene Austring, Rick Higgs, Michael Hayes, Yvonne Chui, Jeff Chenatte, Brady Weir, Erin Mark, Lorna Jones, Daryl Siow, Wayne Lutz, Jaya, Stacy, Nick Pochalio, Brandy Yagelniski, Tanner & Nick Sims. Thank You All!

We would also like to thank the Norman family for all of their volunteer work and contributions over the years, and Leslie for being the fountain of knowledge for the Pitt Meadows community, and us here at the Museum.

April 2015.