Many of us may be used to working from home at the moment, but what does volunteering for the Museum of Cambridge look like during lockdown?
Hello! My name is Mary and I volunteer for the Museum of Cambridge. Through our new series of “Volunteer Blogs”, you will hopefully get to know me and some of the other brilliant (if I do say so myself!) volunteers that help keep everything running smoothly at the museum. Alongside our four fantastic full-time staff, Annie, Maddie, Florencia and Aimee (three of whom are kindly funded by the NLHF and Cambridge City Council), we have a team of volunteers and trustees that dedicate their time and energy to keeping the museum going, so not only does the Museum of Cambridge tell the stories of Cambridge’s communities, it is run by the very people that make up those communities today!
Myself, I am a Fundraising and Marketing volunteer. That means I work with Annie and our fundraising trustee Matt to contribute ideas to, and both research and write social media posts for, our fundraising campaign #YourMuseumNeedsYou (I’ll be cheeky here, and include a link to donate if you would like! https://cafdonate.cafonline.org/7392#!/DonationDetails). The campaign is crucial because it is raising money to support the museum and allow it to stay open after not having been able to open its doors for a good part of the last year. It has been incredibly rewarding to work on this project and know how much of a real impact the money we raise will have, and it’s especially great to be given this opportunity as a volunteer.
As well as fundraising-related social media, I have been working on more general social media posts for the museum too, and I’ve been doing all of this from my desk at home. The desk has very little on it when I sit down to start work, other than a cup of tea, my laptop, and a framed poster that says “The University of Warwick” on it. I graduated from university in the summer and I miss it (!), but, in the time until I go back to do a master’s degree in the Autumn, volunteering is a great way to spend some of my time, as well as to get some experience working with a museum. To me, volunteering for the Museum of Cambridge means telling stories, learning new skills, becoming closer with my community, and noticing what is so special about living in Cambridge. Even during lockdown, and despite the horrors of Covid, Cambridge is such a wonderful city with wonderful people, and I’m lucky to live here!
This post was written by Mary White, a volunteer at the Museum of Cambridge.