Apr
03

Volunteer Appreciation Month

Secretary Bunch offers his gratitude to all the volunteers who make our work possible.

April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month, and I want to take this opportunity to recognize our incredible team of Smithsonian volunteers. Over the past few tumultuous years, our volunteer community has navigated site closures, openings, and re-openings, rapidly changing health and safety protocols, and a new digital frontier. Our volunteers have met each new challenge with enthusiasm, patience, and grace.

Across the Institution, we are beginning to recruit new volunteers again, in many cases, for the first time since the pandemic began. In the coming weeks and months, we will welcome new visitor information specialists, special event volunteers, docents, ambassadors, and gardeners to our Smithsonian family. Their energy, enthusiasm, and expertise help us better serve the public in many ways.

With the Castle closed for renovation, the first group of volunteers has been trained to meet visitors on the Mall in the absence of the information desk. Our visitor engagement digital footprint continues to expand, with a virtual visitor center designed to support our visitors wherever they are. In all aspects of our work, our volunteers connect us and the public we serve in a variety of ways.    

Volunteer in red vest speaks to passerby on the National Mall
A Smithsonian Ambassador in a red vest chats with a visitor on the National Mall outside the Smithsonian Castle. (Photo Courtesy of OVS)

Volunteer work can sometimes go unseen, though it is truly one of our greatest resources.  We have volunteers behind the scenes assisting with research and conservation, public facingvolunteers who help our visitors navigate all the Institution has to offer, and a pan-institutional team of thousands of digital transcribers. In the years to come, we will continue to explore new digital and in-person projects across the Smithsonian, and our volunteers will continue to play an integral role in that evolution.

I am honored to lead this incredible community, and I am so grateful to the volunteers that make the Smithsonian the cultural and scientific treasure it is.

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Posted: 3 April 2023
About the Author:

Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He was the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and is the first historian to be Secretary of the Institution.