Our Valuable Volunteers: 2013 Volunteer Brunch

The Jewish Museum of Maryland could not offer many of it’s services without the help of dedicated volunteers.  On Friday, May 31 the JMM held it’s annual Volunteer Appreciation Event.  It was our chance to formally say Thank You to our marvelous volunteer corps.  A bagel brunch was followed by a performance of the Leo V. Berger Immigant’s Trunk Program, introducing Bessie Bluefeld and starring Terry Nicholetti.

Bessie entranced the audience with her story of traveling to America and making a name for herself in the catering industry.  She withstood many hardships, and had to start over many times.  It’s stories like this that benefit our Docents when they tell stories about what life was like for immigrants, new to Baltimore, at the time period when the two historic synagogues were built (although Bessie did not arrive in Baltimore until the early 1900’s).

It was also a time for JMM staff to highlight the contribution of the volunteers they work with.  This includes volunteers in our Collections, Archives, and Genealogy/Family History departments, plus the volunteers who are the face of the museum to visitors, the Front Desk and Museum Shop volunteers plus the Docents.

The event concluded with a raffle of items donated by local organizations including, the Baltimore Blast, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, CenterStage, the Geppi Entertainment Museum, and the Museum Shop at the JMM. Many thanks to those who contributed to our event and agree that volunteers are such an important part of our Museum.

A blog post by Volunteer Coordinator Ilene Cohen. The first Monday of every month she will be highlighting one of our fantastic JMM volunteers!