The Military Heritage Museum depends on volunteers daily. Our volunteers have a variety of responsibilities, including monitoring and interacting with visitors in the exhibit galleries and program areas, promoting the Museum’s Membership Program, assisting in the Ship’s Store, providing information at the main lobby welcome center, and more!
There are two volunteer categories from which you can choose:

• Museum Daily Operations Volunteers are typically assigned a weekly shift(s) and assist in a functional area during the hours the Museum’s exhibit galleries are open. These functional areas include Museum Galleries, Flight Simulators, Virtual Reality (VR) Goggles, Laser Range, Ship Store and the newest addition to the museum, the Training Center. The Training Center hosts lectures, documentaries, VR lessons and a new 3D movie theater experience.
• Special Programs Volunteers assist in program areas that are not necessarily operating the same hours each week. These include library research databases & cataloging, educational programs, theater programs, Museum-coordinated ceremonies, artifact management, exhibit design, and fundraising events.

I. Museum Daily Operations Volunteers

• Museum Guide
  A Volunteer Museum Guide hosts Museum visitors throughout the Museum’s galleries and provides artifact/general information. A Museum Guide works independently or in pairs with another Museum Guide to provide opportunities for short, visitor-driven interactions based on objects, activities, or stories. The main task of the Museum Guide is to interact with and serve as a point of contact for visitors. Military background is highly desired but not required.
• Museum School Tour Guide
  A School Tour Guide leads K-12 students through interactive field trips, weekend camps and summer camps. A School Tour Guide uses Museum artifacts to introduce innovative approaches to understanding related school topics. If you have classroom experience and love working with children, this is the position for you! A military background is preferred.
• Museum Ship’s Store Volunteer
  A Ship’s Store Volunteer provides essential customer service to visitors by welcoming them to the Museum and processing their purchases. Responsibilities include greeting and welcoming visitors, assisting visitors with store purchases, answering the telephone, and assisting with stocking merchandise. Retail experience preferred.
• Flight Simulator Operator
  The Museum’s Flight Simulation Room is one of the more challenging jobs a volunteer can take on. It requires the volunteer to commit volunteer hours to training until they are proficient and prepared to lead museum patrons through the experience of flight. Many of our Flight Simulation Volunteers are military and/or commercial pilots but many are not.
• Virtual Reality and Laser Range
  Virtual Reality Volunteers lead museum patrons through one or all virtual reality scenarios and teaches the fundamentals of shooting safety and basic marksmanship on our indoor, smokeless laser range. Familiarity with firearms safety and marksmanship are desired but not required.
• Training Center Volunteer
  Previously known as the Library, the Training Center hosts several different programs each day. The four activities provided by the Training Center and its volunteers include:
  • Lectures – Volunteers are provided the opportunity to present lectures on the topic of their choice each day in the Training Center
  • Documentaries – The Training Center Volunteer is responsible each day for starting and stopping the selected documentary. Documentaries are selected by the Museum Curator
  • 3D experience – The Training Center Volunteer is also responsible for starting and stopping all selected 3D movie experiences.
  • Virtual Reality Classroom Experience – Different from the Virtual Reality Room which has self-paced VR scenarios the Training Center VR experience is guided by the Training Center Volunteers in a classroom-type setting.

II. Special Programs Volunteers

• Youth and Family Education Programs Volunteer
  A Youth and Family Education Programs Volunteer is a friendly, professional face for the Museum, and helps welcome youth and families with a variety of programs that include arts and crafts workshops (i.e., model-building) & STEM programs. The volunteer gathers and prepares supplies, helps with set-up and clean-up, and assists in facilitating hands-on experiences, while providing a positive personal museum experience. technology, craft, and gaming skills are a plus!
• Fundraising and Special Events Volunteer
  A Fundraising/Special Events Volunteer works with the Museum’s Executive Director and or Museum Staff to help organize, set up, and tear down special events, as well as displays and promotion booths located elsewhere in the community. This position provides a terrific opportunity to talk about and share your passion for the Museum and its veterans’ stories and encourage community investment in the Museum’s mission.
• Theater Volunteer
  A Theater Volunteer assists the Gulf Theater Manager who oversees the various programs taking place within the theater. A Theater Volunteer greets and gives directions/information to ticket holders, collects tickets, ushers’ attendees at seating time, monitors the Theater entry doors for latecomers and ensures efficient exit of theater goers after the conclusion of an event. Experience with event ticketing, technological literacy and engaging with the public in a performing-arts setting is desired. Theater Volunteers also assist with parking for museum patrons for large theater events.

The process for becoming a Volunteer is quite easy! Your first step is to fill out a Museum Volunteer Contact Form which you can fill out online by clicking the button below, picking up a contact form in person at the Museum, or you can send an email to info@militaryheritagemuseum.org, requesting a Museum Volunteer Contact Form be sent to you.

After the contact form is complete, we will schedule a time for you to come in and meet with the Museum Volunteer Coordinator to complete the application process. This meeting helps us better understand your interests, gauge your skill set, and determine the best fit for you in the museum. This is also an opportunity for you to ask us questions. Following that meeting, we will schedule training.

Upon completion of your training, you will be added to the Volunteers’ Schedule. Depending upon your assigned role, we will be happy to collaborate with you to find a schedule that suits your needs.