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Bulkley Valley Museum needs volunteers

The Smithers Museum, to put it bluntly, is looking for new volunteers. “The public needs to know,” museum board member Patricia Scott said.

The Smithers Museum, to put it bluntly, is looking for new volunteers.

“The public needs to know,” museum board member Patricia Scott said.

“We’re sucking air, we need younger volunteers,” board member and treasurer Linda Lockhart said

In addition to helping out with general duties, volunteers are especially needed to help the museum raise desperately needed funds.

Much of the money needed by the museum comes from fundraising, but with a dwindling corps of volunteers, the museum board find themselves having to cancel fundraising events for lack of manpower.

Some of those events include a Royal Wedding Tea, the Valentines’ Day Raffle and a Casino Night.

“Fundraising has kept us alive,” Scott said.

“We need more volunteers.”

Like many other community groups, the museum relies on fundraising to deliver its programs and the Smithers Museum has done a great job, including the current Titanic exhibit, the exhibit on the filming of the movie Gray in the region, and the turret gunner.

The museum is also desperate for storage space, as currently many of their artifacts such as railroad artifacts and a portable sawmill are spread across the town of Smithers.

One of those storage spaces, in a building owned by the town of Smithers is set to be vacated and the museum must find a space to store their artifacts.

With little storage space available, the museum is turning down additional artifacts, Scott said.

For example, the museum just received a donation of a glider, but at present have no space to store it.

“We’re doing our best to archive your community,” Lockhart said.

Having artifacts stored in several different buildings is not doing anyone any good and the museum board of directors are looking for a new museum.

“We want to give our scattered pieces a home,” Lockhart said.

One site the museum board of directors are coveting is the Kratz property, but Scott said the town of Smithers is not committing itself.