Volunteer at Historic Bethabara Park

Historic Bethabara Park offers a variety of special events to the public throughout the year. These large events require a lot of manpower, and we need your help! We need volunteers to assist with everything from wagon rides to giving out information on the event. Our events are a great way to meet new people in the community and are a fun way to spend a Saturday!

Are you interested in volunteering at our special events? Please contact Assistant Director Diana Overbey (doverbey@triadbiz.rr.com, 336-924-8191) for more details!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers!

Bethabara´s Volunteer of the Year

A man of prodigious energy and talent, Chuck Hotchkiss has generously given of himself to support educational programs and festivals and special events at Historic Bethabara Park. Chuck is an important member of the Bethabara team, and his assistance enables Park staff to accomplish significant projects on a limited budget. Chuck is the dream volunteer every non-profit institution hopes to secure, and he is much beloved and appreciated by staff.

For the past 8 years Chuck Hotchkiss has served as a volunteer at Historic Bethabara Park on a weekly basis. It is difficult to assess the actual number of hours he devotes to the Park, for he generally does woodwork, restoration and repair for us about 8 hours a week, but in addition, Chuck works all year long to set up the Park's highly successful Celtic Music Festival & Highland Games. Chuck has been the volunteer Director of this event for 6 years, sending out mailings, contacting Scottish clans throughout the state, securing athletes for the Highland Games and orchestrating Celtic food and craft vendors and activities. On the week of the Festival itself Chuck takes a vacation from his job and spends each day overseeing the set up and placement of tents and equipment. His contribution to the Park is invaluable, and the Celtic Festival would not be possible without his input and oversight.

Chuck's contributions to the Park in other areas are so many and varied that I will simply list them, trying to cover the major ones:

He setup a woodworking shop in a Park building, the Archeology Lab, stocking it with his own equipment, in order that we could build things we needed on site at minimal expense

* He constructed signs for two historic houses at Bethabara
* He restored, virtually single handedly, the interior of the 1803 Herman Buttner Distiller's House
* He painted the interior of the 1782 Potter's House
* He built cabinets for the entrance to the Edwin Stockton Sr. Visitor Center
* He restored a museum display case for Bethabara's Colonial Medicine exhibit
* He built information stands for the displays in our Barn exhibit
* He built shelves for storage of education program equipment and business office records and rebuilt a cabinet for the museum store
* He regularly repairs objects used by 4th grade students in the Park's "Making a Home in the Wilderness" program
* He is currently constructing benches for the public to utilize during the Park's festivals and special events

If ever a volunteer deserved recognition for his contribution to a non-profit community resource, it is Chuck Hotchkiss.

Bethabara Thanks Volunteer Photographer

Many of the photographs you see in our ads and on our website are due to the skill of long-time volunteer Jack Streb, APSA*. From September through May, visitors to the park might see Jack strolling the grounds with his trusty film camera, capturing scenic shots when the light is just right or catching special moments during the park's festivals and events. We are most fortunate that Jack donates his professional talent, honed throughout his career.

Jack served as Director of Still Photography Planning for Kodak's Consumer Markets Division and retired after serving as Vice President and General Manager of Marketing for Kodak's Electronic Photography Division. He has written articles on scores of photographic subjects and taught photography to such diverse groups as airline flight attendants, National Park Rangers, magazine writers, and adult camera clubs. He presented his slide and movie programs to more than 100,000 people in personal appearances in the United States and Canada.

We appreciate the many hours and rolls of film that Jack has spent to preserve unique aspects of the park.

* Associate, Photographic Society of America