Volunteering with the Centre County Historical Society

The Centre County Historical Society (CCHS) is a non-profit organization that relies heavily on the generous gifts of time and talents by volunteers. There are many opportunities to get involved in CCHS and fulfill your individual interests. Below are brief descriptions of areas that may interest you. If interested, please complete and submit the Volunteer Availability Form.

Archiving & Administrative Work
Data entry, image scanning, file organization, collection care, and library management are some of our on-going needs relating to our archives and collections. Volunteers are also needed to help organize, inventory, and price items in our museum store. Volunteers can work as many hours as they wish. Every bit helps!

Docenting & Greeting
Greeters welcome our visitors and oversee the Museum Store at the Centre Furnace Mansion. Docents provide visitors an overview of iron industry history, and take visitors on a guided tour of three floors of the historic house museum. Regular tour hours are Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoons from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m., and by appointment for school and special group tours. On average, docents work 2 afternoons each month. Docent workshops, educational materials, and docent-shadowing are provided to prepare docents for leading tours.

Docenting opportunities are also available at the Boogersburg School. This one-room schoolhouse is open by appointment for school tours, group tours, and special events. Most school tours occur in the spring months between March and May.

Education & Program Planning
CCHS offers a series of on-going history programs and educational activities. There is always a need for fresh ideas for historic subjects, guest speakers, or special events. Consider joining the Program or Education Committee. The Program Committee schedules monthly programs, varying in topic or tied to a single theme, and often include tours to county locations. Sometimes they are offered in conjunction with a current exhibit at the Centre Furnace Mansion, or to coincide with research from a state-funded grant.

Intern
Internships at the Centre County Historical Society provide students with a hands-on experience in various fields associated with non-profit management, museum programming, and preservation. Specific experience can be gained in history and preservation, architecture, electronic and social media marketing, public relations, tourism marketing and interpretation, archival record-keeping, collections care and management, museum education, and a number of design fields (exhibit, graphic, interior, landscape, museum).

Gardening
The Mansion's gardens and grounds require light but essential gardening to keep this historic facility beautiful for visitors. Thanks to the Centre Furnace Mansion Garden Committee and Penn State Master Gardeners, there are many ongoing garden-related projects, as well as regularly scheduled gardening times (typically Thursday afternoons / evenings).

Special Events
The Stocking Stuffer Antiques, Art & Fine Craft Sale is the Society's largest annual fundraiser event, held the first weekend each December. For this two-day sale, over 50 local artisans and antique dealers are invited to display and sell their handmade crafts, fine art and collectibles in the festively decorated victorian era Mansion. The event is preceded by an elegant Preview Party reception. Many volunteers are needed for preparations, decorations, registrations, and clean-up, as well as bakers, greeters, cashiers, and more for this event!

In addition, several special events are held each year. They include: Plant Celebration Sale at the Centre Furnace Mansion (May), Open House at Boogersburg School (Aug.), Historic Preservation Awards and Annual Meeting (Jan.). Let us know if you would like to volunteer to assist with any of these events.