The San Diego Air & Space Museum wishes all of our volunteers a happy National Volunteer Appreciation Week, April 21-27.

National Volunteer Month is an annual celebration dedicated to honoring volunteering efforts around the world — recognizing people who selflessly devote their time, skills, and energy to support various causes.

This week is a great time for us to recognize and spotlight all of our volunteers for their accomplishments. They play an integral role in the success of the Museum and have proven to be invaluable in the work that we do day-to-day to carry out our mission to preserve, inspire, educate and celebrate aerospace history and technologies.

The Museum currently has 112 active volunteers. Together they have contributed 19,787 hours of work in fiscal year 2023. They range in age from 16 to 98 and have a wide variety of backgrounds.  Many of our younger volunteers are engineering or museum/library students and fulfill their internship requirement here. While many volunteers are former pilots, aerospace managers, engineers, and skilled technicians, some have non-aerospace backgrounds in accounting and medicine. A common thread among them is their love for air and space history and dedication to the Museum’s efforts.

Our volunteers constitute a remarkable group and are a critical resource to understanding the Museum’s distinguished past, a vital driver of its every-day activities, and a key force in driving its future success. They are the true heart and soul of the Museum. During the year, our volunteers worked on various projects ranging from processing collections, digitizing photographs, working on restoration projects, assisting with educational programming, serving as gallery guides, and helping with tasks to revitalize our Gillespie Annex.

Let’s give our volunteers a rousing round of applause this year during National Volunteer Week!