The Telkwa Museum has re-opened for the summer with the help of volunteers and a university student.
This is the first summer the museum has opened without the museum society's past-president, Doug Boersema, who died in December after battling cancer.
The former 1920s school house, which was converted into a museum in the 1980s, has familiar favourites, as well as some new displays.
Alex Chaplin, a second-year university student, who works at the museum every summer, has helped create a new military display.
The display case has artifacts from the Boer War, as well as, a scroll that lists all the veterans from Telkwa who fought in the First and Second World Wars.
“We put, ‘curated by Alex Chaplin’ in the case and he is so proud," said Linda Hanson, manager and treasurer of the Telkwa Musuem. "Juno Beach has just celebrated their [80th anniversary] and we managed to incorporate maps of the beaches over there into our military display.”
The museum also offers interactive activities for people of all ages to enjoy.
“We often find kids will drag their parents in to do tours through the museum and have a great time,” Hanson said.
Visitors can also touch and handle most of the artifacts, which helps kids step back in time.
“There are lots of artifacts [kids] can touch and see, like rotary phones, typewriters [and objects] they would never have experienced,” Chaplin said.
Hanson noted the importance of the past.
“It is important to learn about our history and realize how we got to where we are today. It was on the backs of people who did a lot of hard work,” she said.
Although a lot of local people and tourists visit the museum, Hanson said they are struggling to find volunteers to continue running it.
“By volunteering, it is important to keep a community going and we are getting less and less volunteers. Without volunteers, this museum is not going to keep going,” she said.
“We not only have the museum, but we also look after St. Stephen’s historical church across the highway and we are carrying on the history of our area,” she said.
To make matters worse, the museum did not receive the Canada summer job grant.
“This was the first time in decades we have not received funding, and only because we had this money put away, were we able to hire Alex for the summer,” Hanson said.
“We need to know our past before we can know where we are going in the future,” she said.
The museum is open from Tuesday to Saturday with free entry for all ages.