How You Can Get Involved
Volunteers make our impact possible. No matter your interests or how much time you have to offer, you can help preserve Montana’s history.
Volunteer Opportunities
As Preserve Montana continues to grow and expand, we are looking to grow our network of volunteers in a variety of ways. Some of the most exciting work that happens here is completed by our loyal volunteers.
Bring your team closer together through fun and educational community service. By volunteering with Preserve Montana, your staff might help conduct hands-on restoration work, adventure down the backroads of Montana to assist with historic property documentation, or experience a more formal workshop designed to teach traditional skills while improving the condition of heritage sites.
Protecting historic properties with the help of our staff provides all of the benefits of team-building exercises in a nonconventional and memorable way. These events are ideal for groups of every size and can be engineered to meet the needs of your staff. For more information or to schedule your corporate volunteer day please contact Outreach Director, Madeline Westrom at info@preservemontana.org or call our office at 406-457-2822.
The MPA Path Less Travel: Guide to Hidden Rural Heritage has received an incredible response and people from all across Montana are asking for more! We need a handful of capable writers who can help research and create entries for our guidebook and map. This is a perfect position for anyone looking to hone their writing skills or learn more about all the wonderful historic sites that are off-the-beaten-path in Big Sky Country.
There are amazing historic buildings and sites in every small town and down every back road. Though the staff would like to visit each one, it just isn’t possible. Therefore, we are asking for a couple of people to photograph the historic places, traditional landscapes, and cultural heritage they pass during their summer road-trips, outdoor excursions, or family vacations. Volunteers will need their own camera (or camera phone) to participate. Images collected could be published on our website, social media accounts, or formal reports.
When it comes to historic preservation there are always endless piles of records and books to sort through. The MPA is looking for volunteers to help research the schoolhouses of eastern Montana as part of our Big Sky Schoolhouse Survey. This will require detailed research at the historical society and communication with locals who may have oral histories or information on schoolhouse locations. Anyone with a few extra hours, a natural sense of curiosity, and passion for Montana’s iconic schoolhouses would be a perfect fit.
Our Big Sky Schoolhouse Survey continues this summer, and the MPA is searching for volunteers to help document schoolhouses in the eastern counties of our state. Because Montana’s eastern counties are sparsely populated there are many miles to cover between schools. If you live east of Billings, have a family history, or just a love for the high plains of Montana we have a job for you!
The ideal volunteer project serves as a chance to give back to your community and learn new skills. Hands-on restoration work is frequently available on location at our restoration sites and can include anything from deconstruction to laying a new cedar shingle roof and everything in between. Activity specifics will depend on what projects are active at any given moment, and all skill levels are welcome! For more seasoned preservationists, there may also be opportunities to lend a hand in during workshops, restoring wood windows or doors. If interested, contact our Restoration Director, Mary Webb, here.
Did we miss something?
If you possess a valuable skill or knowledge base that could be valuable to the MPA,
please feel free to contact our Outreach Coordinator (Madeline Westrom) here to discuss further volunteering options.
Upcoming Events
You’ll find all of our upcoming events on our Facebook Page. Check them out below.
Take Action In Your Community
Human effort gave us majestic historic buildings and places, and human effort is what will save them. Taking action begins with making connections at the local level.
Get Involved Locally
Join your local heritage preservation commission, historical society, city commission, or community or neighborhood council. No matter how small a town, there’s always people interested in preserving the built environment and the historical legacies that our relatives left behind.
Volunteer
You may not have time to serve on a commission or board, but volunteering at annual events gives local historical societies the capacity they need to raise funds and continue programs and projects. Giving a little time, makes a big difference, especially for small organizations.
Exercise Best Practices
Whether it’s your home or business, you can be a model for best practices in historic preservation. By reading and following preservation guidelines such as the Secretary of the Interiors Standards for Historic Preservation or preservation bulletins from the National Park Service, your efforts are likely to rub off on your neighbors.
Talk to Your State Representatives
Make your local representatives aware of the benefits of historic preservation. Let them know that historic preservation brings jobs, updated and revitalized downtown businesses, more tourism, and increased community pride. When they see the positive connection between economics and saving history, our state heritage sites may benefit when it comes to making policies and laws.
Talk to Preserve Montana
When your stumped about a preservation issue or there’s a threatened place in your town, don’t hesitate to contact us. We provide the resources, know-how, and sometimes even the elbow grease, to save and protect Montana’s historic places.
Have a project for us? Submit it here.
If you have a restoration project that you would like us to consider, please reach out.