Young museum workers throughout central Alberta were honoured with Certificates of Appreciation from Red Deer - Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins during a Summer Student Tea event held at the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday.

By Sheldon Spackman

Preserving Local History

Young museum workers honoured for preserving local history

Jul 11, 2019 | 7:05 AM

Recognizing the efforts of young museum workers in central Alberta was the aim behind a visit from Red Deer – Lacombe MP Blaine Calkins to the Red Deer Museum and Art Gallery (MAG) on Wednesday.

Calkins says it’s important to acknowledge the student’s work and interest in preserving and promoting our region’s vibrant history.

“What we have here today are a bunch of summer students who are either employed in-part by the Young Canada Works program or the Canada Summer Jobs program which these museums and historical societies depend on,” he explains. “They’re all university or college students that find employment and are keeping our history alive. We’ve heard some great information about some additions to the collections like some old cameras and we heard about 90,000 pieces of textile right here for Red Deer and that’s what these young people are doing, they’re going through and cataloging all this.”

Calkins handed out Certificates of Appreciation to roughly 16 students at the Summer Student Tea event, but adds there are several more to be handed out still over the coming weeks.

“For those that couldn’t make it today, I’ll find a way to appreciate them later on,” he exclaims. “We’ve got some amazing artifacts in our museums and all of our communities with some tremendous history that’s there. So come on out, bring the family and support your local museum and see some of the fantastic work that these young people are doing.”

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Lorna Johnson, executive director at the MAG, says she loves to encourage young people to explore museums as a career potential, as 30 per cent of current museum staff in Canada are set to retire in the next 10 years.

“There are just so many possibilities and it’s something that’s not widely thought of I think. I’ve been here 15 years and pretty well every summer, we’ve had probably at least two students and this year we have six,” she exclaims. “Through the Young Canada Works program, our collection has been documented almost entirely by summer students, so it’s a huge piece of work and that has taken the museum leaps and bounds farther and quite a number of those students have gone on to pursue careers in museum studies.”

Through the Canada Summer Jobs program, Johnson says those students are generally used for their summer day camps and educational programs.

“We’ve had quite a few students who are student teachers or students who are thinking of pursuing education,” says Johnson. “But again, it’s huge value for us because we have people who are interested in the project, we have an infusion of young energy and we offer them more insight into what their career choices might be, so it’s a win-win all the way around.”

by Sheldon Spackman

Young museum workers honoured for preserving local history

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