Museum volunteers enjoying the snow in 2017
In celebration of National Volunteer Month, the National Bonsai Foundation is paying tribute to the heartfelt, dedicated volunteers who assist the National Bonsai & Penjing Museum’s full-time staff in caring for the timeless and breathtaking trees in the national collection.
NBF is grateful for these volunteers who help make up the heart and soul of the Museum, infusing the spirit of bonsai into everything, from their technical duties to events and meetings that support the Museum.
But who are Museum volunteers, and what do they do?
Volunteers assist with the maintenance of the Museum's bonsai and penjing collections. Their duties range from cleaning to pruning and wiring trees. Typically, the Museum receives the help of 10 to 15 volunteers annually, and they generally work 4 to 6 hours per week. While some volunteers come and go, others have volunteered for decades and have even been involved with the Museum since its inception.
Museum Curator Michael James said past years have yielded an average of 2,000 annual volunteer hours. James said each volunteer offers the Museum a unique skill set and personal experiences in horticulture and the art of bonsai.
“The volunteers are generous enough to give something so valuable as their time,” he said. “The stories they tell are like pages from a horticultural history book.”
Volunteers Janet Lanman and Jim Rieden join Hughes, Museum specialist Kathleen Emerson-Dell and other bonsai club members in a discussion about bonsai. Photos courtesy of Jim Hughes.
Jim Hughes, NBF’s board chair and a former Museum curator, said constantly maintaining the show-ready condition of bonsai for public display is very labor intensive. The volunteers’ many hands help full-time Museum staff make light work of the hundreds of trees within the Museum’s collections.
“Volunteers help get the job done, week in and week out,” Hughes said. “As curator, I found them to be an invaluable resource that is skilled, dedicated and appreciative of their unique opportunity to work on these storied trees.”
He said some of his closest links to the local bonsai community during his time overseeing the collection from 2005 to 2008 were built around his weekly contact with Museum volunteers, who were bonsai club leaders and steadfast NBF supporters.
Volunteer Tom Inglesby helps Hughes repot the Ponderosa pine in the Museum’s grow out area.
Hughes added that his role as NBF’s board chair provides him with a heightened awareness of the significant contribution that these volunteers make to the Museum and the U.S. National Arboretum, in lieu of paid staff.
“Historically, in addition to their time and efforts at the museum, many of them are faithful NBF donors,” he said. “We are thankful to all of them for their hard work at the Museum and their philanthropic support of NBF's mission to promote the art of bonsai and penjing.”
A few of the volunteers Hughes worked with were original founders of the Museum and started their own local bonsai clubs that still thrive today.
“I am thankful I’ve had the opportunity to personally meet and work with these individuals that established the Museum as a national showcase of this beautiful art form,” he said. “I hope we can do them the honor of continuing to safeguard the legacy we have inherited.”
The Museum has been closed since mid-March 2020 and hopes to reopen soon, when it is safe for volunteers to return. Their enthusiasm for the national collection, bonsai and the related horticultural and artistic endeavors brings a vibrance to the Museum and NBF, and they have been greatly missed.
While we have had many volunteers over the years and are grateful for their service and giving, our current list of active volunteers is below.
Jennifer Amundsen
Josh Berer
Ross Campbell
Jack Chapman
Sundara Chintaluri
Young Choe
Scott Clinton
Olivia Cook
Chuck Croft
James Dail
Elizabeth Dame
Robert Drechsler
LeAnn Duling
Matthew Ferner
Pierre Gerber
Brian Gottlieb
Joseph Gutierrez, MD
Richard Hammerschlag
James Haworth
Nia Imani
Tom Inglesby
Richard Kang
David Lieu
Stephanie Mark
Garret Miller
Lee Palmer
Theodore Pickett, Jr.
Julie Pascu
Mike Rainwater
Steve Smith
Akiko Sprague
Lori Sullivan
Janice Vitale
Alexander Voorhies
Richard Winchester