Volunteer Today!
As a volunteer, you are a vital member of the Institute’s team. You can share your time and talent in so many ways. We will work with you to choose the right volunteer position at a time that meets your needs. Most positions require little to no background and training is always provided. Several times a year, the Institute hosts volunteer open houses where you can come and learn about what it’s like to volunteer here and receive a tour.
Click here and to see opportunities currently available.
to volunteer!
To volunteer you must:
- Be 14 years or older
- Agree to abide by Cranbrook's policies and procedures
- Complete an application, interview and be accepted into the program
- Attend any required training or orientation sessions
You can expect to:
- Receive training
- Receive the sincere gratitude of the staff
- Meet interesting people
- Receive discounts on programs and products
- Be part of a well respected, internationally renowned institution
Current volunteer opportunities include:
- Clerical assistant (weekdays)
- Collections Assistant (weekdays)
- Earth Science/Paleontology Docent (weekdays/weekends)
- Gift Shop Assistant (weekdays)
- Membership Advisory Board (weekedays)
- Observatory Daytime Facilitator (weekends/summer weekdays)
- Planetarium Program Assistant (weekends/summer weekdays)
- Education Program Assistant (weekdays/weekends/evenings)
- School Group Facilitator (weekdays)
- Special Event Assistant (weekends/holidays)
- Traveling Exhibit Assistant (weekdays/weekends)
For information contact:
Volunteer Services Office
cis_volunteer@cranbrook.edu
248.645.3259
Behind the Scene in the Institute's Collections
There's Lots to Do
Work on the Cranbrook Institute of Science (CIS) Collections goes on every day. CIS researchers as well as scholars from across the United States study objects in the CIS Collections to learn or confirm new information or to dispute old theories; curators and designers consider and select objects for conservation and exhibition; and interns, university students and volunteers sort, mount, catalog and label.
Norm Wright is a perfect example of a Collections volunteer who makes a difference at CIS. In fact, you might say that Norm’s 1989 “retirement” from his position as a chemical technican was the beginning of his new job as a volunteer in the Collections. His enthusiasm for birding and botany, a lot of patience and thoughtfulness, and a degree in biology are part of the background that prepared Norm to help care for the CIS Collections.
Norm is currently working on herbarium sheets dontated to the Cranbrook Institute of Science by the University of Detroit-Mercy. The botanical specimens, collected by students in the late 1940s and early 50s, are pressed between pages of newspaper. To ensure their preservation and to prepare them for authentication, Norm is transferring each specimen to an acid-free backing and inserting it in an acid-free folder along with the collector’s handwritten notes that record exactly where and when the specimen was gathered. He points out that the project will not be complete until all the information in students’ notes and the specimens’ catalog numbers are entered into the CIS Collections computerized data base and printed out on required page labels. He could surely use a volunteer partner with data entry expertise to complete this part of the project.
Norm has tackled many projects as a volunteer – from helping collect and press botanical specimens, to cleaning T. rex skeletons, to labeling specimens of birds and their eggs – but he mentions that there are still many cabinets in Collections that he hasn’t worked on. CIS Collections contain artifacts from pre-historic pottery, to ancient Japanese armor, to Melanisian totems; and objects from moa bones, to fossil plants, to butterfly wings.
WANT TO HELP? Contact the CIS Volunteer Coordinator at cis_volunteer@cranbrook.edu for information about becoming a Collections volunteer.
