Volunteers

As part of the Guest Services Team, Guest Services Volunteers & Golf Cart Drivers are responsible for greeting guests, answering questions to help guests orient themselves, and increasing accessibility throughout the Museum's campus. Schedule is flexible. Weekdays and weekends, as well as indoor and outdoor, shifts are available.

Guest Services Volunteers & Golf Cart Drivers May:

• Greet guests as they arrive;
• Ensure the orientation theaters are clean and operable: lighting, climate control, etc.;
• Coordinate with the front end staff and volunteers on seating availability and timing of shows;
• Coordinate with Golf Cart Drivers to assist guests with limited access;
• Operate golf carts (only volunteers over age 19) to help guests circulate around the campus;
• Instruct chaperones and group leaders on guidelines and expectations for visiting the Museum
• Direct the flow of guests through the Visitor Center;
• Report and deliver lost and found items to staff; and
• Help guests with directions and inquiries in Plymouth or beyond.

Horticulture Volunteers combine their love of nature with service as they help care for the Museum’s 120+ acre campus, which includes 17th- and 20th-century historical, border, and perennial gardens. Some horticulture volunteers support the annual Plant Sale in late May, while others maintain the gardens outside the Visitor's Center and around the Museum's living history sites. Horticulture volunteer activities can include planting, watering, weeding and raking. Off-season work in the greenhouses is also possible. Horticulture Volunteers are:

• Comfortable with a basic understanding of plant care and maintenance including planting, weeding, watering, and pruning;

• Able to working in a variety of standing, crouching, or seated postures outdoors or in a greenhouse;

• Willing to work with a team;

• Self-motivated.

Museum Guides are passionate about history and delight in sharing their knowledge with thousands of guests each year! Museum Guides work in the living history exhibits (including the 17th-Century English Village, Historic Patuxet Homesite, Mayflower II and Plimoth Grist Mill) answering guests' questions about the Indigenous and English colonial communities who lived along these shores of change in the 1600s from a modern, 21st-century perspective.

Please Note: Museum Guides attend additional training sessions and participate in monthly meetings which may include additional reading and continuing education opportunities.

The Historical Clothing and Textile Department makes and maintains all of the 17th-century reproduction clothing worn by our Public History Performers, and all of the textiles used in the homes in the 17th-Century English Village. We are supported by 4 primary groups of volunteers.

• Plimoth Sewists: These volunteers assist with daily tasks in our Costume Shop, such as mending clothing and textiles, hand sewing accessories, and laundry and ironing. Intermediate skills in either hand or machine sewing are required, but we'll provide instruction on period sewing techniques.
• Plimoth Knitters: This group mends all of the knit goods used by our public history performers, and makes new knit items when the need arises. These garments include stockings, garters, mittens, various styles of hats, waistcoats, and more. Volunteers can either pick up and drop off projects or spend time knitting in the Costume Shop. Yarn and patterns are provided, but you must have your own needles. In addition to the Plimoth Knitters, the Museum also partners with a separate group, the Greater Boston Knitters Guild, for public knitting demonstrations and new pattern development as well as regular knitting.
• Weavers (in association with the Weavers Guild of Boston): The weavers demonstrate in front of the public in the Craft Center, both weaving a communal project on our LeClerc Nilus loom and teaching guests how to use inkle looms.

The Plimoth Cinema Volunteer helps Plimoth Cinema staff members in the afternoons and evenings with cinema operations. The Plimoth Cinema Volunteers assist with preparation of concessions, such as making and serving popcorn and restocking candy and drinks while the Cinema staff sells tickets. You will be taught all necessary responsibilities to succeed in the position.

The Plimoth Cinema Volunteer may:

• Help Plimoth Cinema Staff prepare and serve concessions to cinema guests at the admission desk;
• Answer basic questions about the theaters, movies, as well as questions about the museum and Plymouth in general;
• Help guests to their seats, if necessary.

Historical Clothing Care Volunteers keep our Public History Performers looking their very best. They may launder, iron and sort clothing for historical performers, and deliver it to their dressing rooms. An ideal volunteer candidate for this position would be able to stand for the majority of their shift, though accessibility accommodations can be discussed with the volunteer supervisor. Training will be provided, no experience required. Clothing care volunteers come in between 2 and 5pm for 1-2 hour shifts Monday through Saturday. The position can extend to mending clothing if a candidate has sewing experience and the desire to do so.