Volunteer

VIPs in colorful period dress are ready to assist visitors in the Great Hall at Grand Portage.

NPS Photo / Mike Plummer-Steen

 

Mission Statement for Grand Portage’s Volunteers-In-Parks Program

• The mission of the Volunteers in Parks program of Grand Portage National Monument is to provide individuals opportunities to commemorate, preserve, and communicate the stories associated with Grand Portage Ojibwe and North West Company interactions through the years 1731-1802 and to the present. Volunteers are important team members of the park staff and are encouraged to participate in all training, meetings, special events, etc. that are available to staff. This program will affirm their ownership and stewardship of this park and the entire National Park Service and will honor their specific contributions.

Grand Portage has an outstanding team of Volunteers in Parks (VIPs). These VIPs assist the park with a wide variety of tasks. These include greeting and orienting visitor, assisting with special events, fee collection, answering visitors’ questions, data entry, filing, answering phones, designing curriculum, library and inventory projects, archive/collections/archeology work, and conducting living history and education programs.

• Volunteers are encouraged to participate in park training. This includes the annual staff training week in May as well as quarterly staff safety meetings.
• RV sites with full hookups are available for VIPs who contribute 12 weeks or more of VIP work.
• If you are interested in applying to be a Grand Portage VIP please read some sample job descriptions below or at www.volunteer.gov/gov and complete the application at www.nps.gov/volunteer ; or send your completed application with your resume to: Volunteer Coordinator, Grand Portage National Monument, P.O. Box 426, 170 mile Creek Road, Grand Portage, Minnesota 55605.

Current VIP opportunities at Grand Portage NM

Living History Interpreter: Inform visitors about the trade interactions of Grand Portage Ojibwe and French, British and American fur traders. Interpreters wear period dress, issued by the Monument during annual seasonal training in May, and may work in six historic venues: Great Hall, Kitchen, Canoe Warehouse, Voyageur Encampment, Ojibwe Village and Historic Three sisters and Kitchen gardens.

SCA Intern: Become a Student Conservation Association (SCA) interpretive intern at Grand Portage National Monument. View the announcement on the SCA website.

If you are interested in applying to be a Grand Portage VIP, please read some sample job descriptions and complete the application.

• Please send your completed application with your resume to:
• • Volunteer Coordinator
  • Grand Portage National Monument
  • P.O. Box 426
  • 170 Mile Creek Road
  • Grand Portage, Minnesota 55605

• For more information contact: Pam Neil at [phone] ext 255.

 

Presentation of "Music From the Past" by Grand Portage volunteer on the porch of the Great Hall.

NPS photo