New Volunteer Training-June 7th
for new and returning volunteers 

Are you retired or have some extra time?  Do you need service credit or an internship? Are you interested and or knowledgeable about the preservation and restoration of old houses?  Are you curious about helping with our collections?   Do you like dressing in period clothes and leading tours? How about cooking sweets and savories and serving tea?  Maybe you like to get your hands dirty, and want to learn how to rebuild a wooden window or maintain the gardens?

Discover your passion by using your skills and join our board and, or help us create new events and  training workshops that can transform lives, restore a historic house and make you feel good!  If so, this training program is for you.  
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In this four-hour training, you get an exciting overview of our mission and programs. 

We begin with visuals of the past. Historic maps show the Bay Area and Oakland changing. Long gone are the 200 acres of Oak Tree Farm area and the families who lived here. 

Then, tour the house and learn what stick style Victorian and Craftsman architecture is. Admire the aesthetic interiors and the Eastlake style craftsmanship used to in 1884 to furnish and decorate this unique house.  Inside this unique house is a time capsule full of one family's collections of written documentation, letters, photographs, clothing, art, ceramics, books, furniture, flooring and wallpapers.  We still have so many objects you can discover and catalog. Appreciate the preservation and restoration work that we are currently doing to maintain everything and what you might do to help.

After lunch with your new friends in the garden, explore and learn about how we plan to use the whole property to meet our goals; see the rooms in the buildings in the back of the property,  which has the wood workshop and our wooden window workshop. The half-acre garden features large trees, heirloom and native plants, bee hives, flowers and vegetable boxes. 
Learn about our past, current and future events, and how you might want to get involved. To see  areas in which you might want to specialize, click here  Volunteer.

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The training is a one time cost of $35.00 This cost covers snacks, beverages and handouts. Become a member and get the training for free.  Commitment: flexible, but 2+ hours a week or helping with special events and tours really helps. We meet Wednesdays and Saturdays- sometimes Sundays. This training is held on a Saturday.

 

Learn about the two new events the volunteers are creating - Be part of producing our new special event, "Celebrating Preservation and Restoration". Where craftsman and artisans will share their crafts and inspire others through workshops and by sharing their personal experiences. Gain valuable skills by networking, and doing outreach to find these artisans.   Educate others by promoting the events and programs on our website and social media. We hope to attract people who will help us develop our long-term goal to become sustainable below.

 

New- Make a difference and use your talents to help us create, promote and launch training workshops for Do-it-yourselfers. Use your skills to help teach the vitally important, but rapidly vanishing historic crafts. These workshops teaching job skills are essential to restore and preserve old houses, and their contents. Our long-range plan is to use the fees from the training workshops to provide scholarships for our Fruitvale neighbors. Giving them these job skills, needed by everyone who has an old house, will transform their lives. Be part of something bigger. ​

Knowing  about what we offer here will keep you coming back for more. 

We guarantee you will enjoy being part of a caring community, making new friends and having a variety of fun and interesting things to do. We will demonstrate, discuss, practice and work alongside you. With your help, we will reach our long term goals of becoming self-sustaining and a resource for our community.

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We are always happy to meet individuals, friends or groups who are interested in becoming volunteers. For just one day or on-going.  Learn about who we are and how you can become involved. If you're interested, please fill out the form below and sign up for the training. Contact us with any questions you might have.

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