The Nolumbeka Project is an all-volunteer organization and we welcome you to donate your time and talents to help keep our programs and Wissatinnewag healthy and strong. We seek long-term and short-term availability. If you have a specific skill you are willing to offer or are interested in learning more, please email nolumbekaproject@gmail.com.
Following is a list of some of our opportunities and needs in different categories including events and Wissatinnewag. If you have offers of other valuable skills not listed, we will welcome your suggestions nolumbekaproject@gmail.com.
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Growing Season Projects at Wissatinnewag. For more about Wissatinnewag’s Circle Gardens, click here.
Ongoing through the season:
- Watering (approximately one hour each session, frequency depends on weather conditions, involves carrying buckets)
- Weeding
Occasional Projects at Wissatinnewag:
- Garden preparation and planting
- General shed and garden maintenance
- Trail maintenance, weed-whacking, and mowing
- Begin implementation of landscape design
- Water source maintenance (includes well digging)
- Volunteer outreach and organization for the Wissatinnewag projects
- Grant writers for Wissatinnewag projects
Pocumtuck Homelands Festival (August [1], 2 & 3) Volunteer Opportunities. For pictures from previous festivals go to our Facebook page and click on “photos”. Please contact us at nolumbekaproject@gmail.com if interested. Some of the tasks you can sign up for are listed below
- We need a small group of people from Friday, August 1, mid-morning to early afternoon to help clean the park and measure out spaces for vendors.
- Are there people willing to help with coordinating volunteers, starting soon? Help design a task sheet and schedule, contact people, help at the event to point volunteers in the right directions?
- Also, help with set up for the Friday evening “Honoring Tom Porter and the White Roots of Peace” Ceremony later in the day. Starts at 5 p.m. Not a full festival set up but some help with tables, chairs, etc. will be needed.
- Sign up to volunteer for a two-hour shift at the festival or sign up for longer or multiple shifts. We have many needs from carrying heavy items to sitting at a table or helping with an art project. Email us at nolumbekaproject@gmail.com to reach the Volunteer Coordinator. We welcome your help. We have bright green volunteer tee-shirts we ask you to purchase for $10
- One of the least pleasant tasks is overseeing the trash/compost/recycling stations. This year we will offer two volunteers $250 each to tend the stations both days. It will require being at the festival from beginning to end but this is not something one has to tend to constantly. It can be between performances, after visiting with one of the artists, and earn enough money to buy a beautiful work of art and pay for lunch.
- Cleaning the park grounds and bike path Thursday afternoon, early Friday and into the afternoon, and early Saturday and/or Sunday before opening. There is a goose poop problem, and we have scooping equipment but it’s time consuming and seems never ending.
- We will need a lot of people on Saturday morning at 8 a.m. when the vendors arrive to help set up their tents, carry their wares, put out chairs and tables, and the sound systems and set up.
- Sunday morning, too, helping set up again, at 9 a.m.
- Helping the vendors set up their tents and merchandise, as requested.
- Help collect raffle items from artists
- Help set up and staff the Nolumbeka Project tents, tables, merchandise, displays, and raffle
- Filling, maintaining, adding ice to the water dispensers
- Help vendors operate their booths if needed. Provide water, food, and breaks for vendors when needed. People to sit at performers’ tables while on stage if needed. This is an ongoing task everyone can pitch in with as needed during your shifts.
- Help, including several strong people to help on Saturday at closing at 5 p.m. We will have overnight security but we will be moving the electronics and some of the more fragile or valuable items to lock up overnight.
- Help, including few strong individuals Sunday at closing at 5 p.m. to help the vendors take down their tents and get their items to their cars, stack chairs, take down Nolumbeka Project displays, help get everything picked up and carried away, etc.
- Help with the fire pit which will be burning during festival hours, including contributing the right sized wood to burn.
- Loan of your 10′ x 10′ pop-up tent to be put up on Friday for artists traveling long distances. Please let us know in advance.
- Take pictures we can share on Facebook and our website.
- Help with arts and crafts projects.
- Providing tech support to sound people at main stage and history tent.
- Person/people with pick-up truck/s to take compost to local farm at the end of the festival Saturday and Sunday.
- Put festival posters up in your towns
- Tell your friends and families about the event. Share our Facebook posts. Help the vendors by encouraging people you know to come to this once-a-year, unique, and beautiful marketplace.
- Every year our artists tell us how wonderful all of you volunteers all are.
- Thank you!
Please email nolumbekaproject@gmail.com if you are interested. If you notice we missed something, please tell us. We want this to be a great experience for everyone.
The Nolumbeka Project presents several free cultural and educational events to the public every year. They include our annual Full Snow Moon Gathering in February, the Day of Remembrance in May, the Pocumtuck Homelands Festival the first weekend in August, and the Full Beaver Moon Gathering in November. We have additional public presentations at appropriate times, like when we hosted Robin Wall Kimmerer in June 2022 and collaborated with Western Mass Rights of Nature and members of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe on a Rights of Nature for the Connecticut River presentation and a Social Dance at GCC. We also table events sponsored by other organizations such as the North Quabbin Garlic & Arts Festival and the Old Deerfield Arts and Crafts Fair. Here is a list of some of our other volunteer needs, short-term and long-term. We thank you for your help:
- Volunteer coordinator/s for various events
- Grant writers for various areas including events, Wissatinnewag, archives, research, preservation
- Website design and maintenance assistants
- Publicizing events, outreach, media contact support
- Putting up event posters in your area
- Administrative assistant/s, thank you notes, grant reports, updating mailing lists, etc.
- Help at Nolumbeka Project events and other organization events where we have a presence. This includes helping set up and break down, tending tables, and more, depending on the event.
- Help coordinate, provide, and serve light refreshments at some of our events.
- People to take pictures for our Facebook page, live-stream, Zoom, or video our events
- People interested in becoming more involved in preliminary events planning and preparation
- Volunteer sound engineer who can transport, set up, and control our sound system
- Volunteer graphics designer
Nolumbeka Project 