VOLUNTEER PROFILE Giving Back to Her Community

Giving Back to Her Community A Legacy Built on Hope and Principles

By Holli Hodgson, Volunteer Manager

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Every year, volunteers at the Royal BC Museum contribute over 46,000 hours of their time! Their work touches every single part of the museum. Volunteers support school programs, assist visitors in our customer service operations and coat-check area, act as hosts and ambassadors, and support work in the collections and research areas.

Our volunteers are a diverse and talented group of people who enjoy sharing their knowledge and experience with others, building partnerships and being part of one of the most exciting and rewarding volunteer programs in the province. I want to share the amazing story of one of our most dedicated.

Kathy was born in the Tashme internment camp, just outside Hope, BC, after her family was relocated from Vancouver at the beginning of World War II. Kathy likes to tell people that she was “born beyond Hope”!

Although she has very little memory of her time in the family’s shack, her mother often described how there was no room for a crib, and an apple box was used in its place. Alas, that made Kathy the “bad apple”! After the war, in 1947, her family relocated to Winnipeg. Kathy did not return to British Columbia for almost 50 years.

A museum has recently been constructed in Tashme to remember this period in British Columbia’s history. Kathy’s family has made several donations to the Tashme Museum, including symbolic koi flags that flew over their shack.

Kathy began volunteering with the Royal Museum Shop 24 years ago and, as a Learning team volunteer, supporting the Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition. Since then she has worked in every exhibition presented by the museum. Kathy is part of the Learning team that presents programming for Helmcken House, Wonder Sundays, Night Shift, Happy Hour and many, many, many more! She also steps up any time the Philanthropy and Marketing departments need a hand. Kathy is an active member of the community, volunteering at Craigdarroch Castle and the University of Victoria Retirees Association, too.

As a member of the Urasenke Tankokai Victoria Association, Kathy practises the four principles on which the Japanese tea ceremony is built: Harmony, Respect, Purity and Tranquility. We think she embodies them all.

1. CEO Jack Lohman presents Kathy with her 20 Year Pin on April 27, 2017.

2. Kathy’s parents’ wedding picture, about 1927.