Franzosenbusch Heritage Project                     Home

Volunteer Opportunities

Get in on the early days of a fascinating and limitless project.  At the Franzosenbusch Prairie House Museum and Nature Center on the Wolf Road Prairie Preserve you can:

• Go "hands on" with projects like those exciting historical shows that you have been watching on the History Channel by participating in the Research Committee's endeavors to discover the secrets of an almost 150 year old timber frame structure contained within our museum.

Mrs. Analise Pitts, pictured to the above right, is shown translating church record.  Mr. and Mrs. Pitts are members of the Immanuel Lutheran Church.

• Whether you like to work with computers or prefer pen and paper, we will have opportunities from simple record keeping to graphic design of ever changing museum exhibits and development of historical digital photo data bases.

(John Morano pictured to left.)

• Test your skills at fundraising in the 21st Century.

(Jeanne Halama, our secretary and musician)

• Help to plan exciting cultural events.

• Relax while helping to design and build beautiful educational native and theme gardens surrounding our nature center and museum.

(Lana Gits noting the condition of the old school house floor)

• Try your hand at carpentry, plumbing and painting in relaxed atmosphere where "rest periods" are taken on an authentic nineteenth century porch or enjoy breathtaking views of the "globally imperiled" Wolf Road Prairie ecosystem from the south deck.

(Jim Hodapp drumming up support)

(Wolf Road Prairie is designated as "globally imperiled" in the Chicago Wilderness Biodiversity Recovery Plan.)

Qualified professionals in all the building trades are needed and heartily appreciated to further this worthwhile endeavor.

Our Society (working with the Save the Prairie Society) also conducts tours of Wolf Road Prairie and the history of the Franzosenbusch Prairie House.  In the fall of 2002 several bus loads of students were given tours over the course of a few weeks.  If you wish to help us with our education program, please contact us.

We are also interested in individuals and groups who will wear period costumes of the 1850's and 1860's.  The Reaves (Drew, Patricia and Tatiana) are a few of our members who dress for some of our events. Here we see Drew Reaves and and his daughter, Tatiana, dressed as the Franzosenbusch schoolhouse teacher -- Herr Kirchner -- and his daughter.

Photograph by Lawrence Godson.

For more information please visit our Contact Page pages.

Last Modified:  04/27/2007