Executive Director of the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums Erin Augenstein, left, prepares to answer questions at a new volunteer training while prospective volunteer Susan Satterfield, right, listens. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)

MARIETTA — One of the first faces many people see when they visit the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums is that of a volunteer.

The Northwest Territory Museum Society, the museums’ site manager, held a new volunteer training session at 1 p.m. Saturday at Campus Martius.

At the session Executive Director of the Campus Martius and Ohio River Museums Erin Augenstein told prospective volunteers about the society, the Ohio History Connection for which it runs the museums and the museums themselves.

Augenstein said the Ohio River Museum is temporarily closed because they are building a new facility, but Campus Martius is open seven days a week and is only closed on New Year’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Augenstein said volunteers can fill all sorts of roles there – giving guided tours of or serving as greeters for the Putnam House, helping with school groups visiting the museum, help with children on tours of the museum, working the front desk, assisting with events, taking admission, selling things in the gift shop, cleaning, shredding documents, planting flowers, weeding and more. According to the museum, volunteers can also lead hands-on activities involving candle dipping, pioneer clothing, military drills and arms, weaving, Ohio wildlife in the 1780s, fossils of the valley and more.

Volunteers can shadow others to learn how to give a tour or do an activity and all volunteers are trained on the tasks they will be doing, Augenstein said. They can volunteer for whatever hours they want.

Augenstein said volunteers can do at the museum “whatever it is you think you have a gift of.”

There are no age requirements for volunteers. Students and youth who really love history are welcome to volunteer, she said.

“If someone wants to be here, we want them to be here,” Augenstein said.

Augenstein said they work hard to make sure there are two paid staff members in the building at all times and volunteers do not have to count cash, handle keys, set alarms or other duties like that. Volunteers are never alone in the building.

One of the benefits to being a volunteer is that those who work 60 hours during a fiscal year, July 1 to June 30, receive a free Ohio History Connection Family membership, which lets them get into any of the organization’s 58 sites for free. Also, every time a person volunteers they get a ticket to put into a drawing for merchandise or gift shop cash.

Augenstein said in order to become a volunteer a person must fill out an application, fill out a background check form they then must take to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles Marietta location and provide emergency contact information. The Northwest Territory Museum Society pays for the background check.

The training session ended with the prospective volunteers getting a tour of the Putnam House.

Susan Satterfield, who grew up in Marietta, said she attended because she is “a retired teacher and interested in possibly working with school groups and just getting out and giving back.”

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer or who has questions about it contact Office Manager and Retail and Volunteer Coordinator Nancy Flanders at nancy@mariettamuseums.org or 740-373-3750 or 1-800-860-0145.

Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com