Another busy period is behind us, during which so much has happened that it’s worth summarising and reflecting on it all. What’s worth highlighting is that our volunteering has become very regular, and there’s no shortage of ideas for activities, even in winter.
We started the year by finishing work on creating a changing room for volunteers. With the director of LMW’s permission, back in autumn 2024 we cleared out one of the workshop rooms and cleaned the walls of falling plaster and flaking paint. The whole area was then properly primed, we filled in the gaps in the plaster and repainted it. Following the refurbishment, the room was fitted with benches, coat hooks, a table, a cupboard for clothes and health and safety equipment, and even a kettle. Working at the museum is now much more comfortable.
The second project undertaken since the start of the year was the construction of a modular model layout. Time was of the essence, as the layout was being prepared for the Model-Making Picnic and was set to be one of its main attractions. We attached surfaces, imitation roads, rivers and grass to the modular boxes built in autumn 2024. We designed and printed buildings, windmills and architectural elements. The whole thing turned out brilliantly.
The start of the year also involved work in the park. Clearing snow, raking, washing, and removing branches and trees. In short, hard graft, which we spiced up with work on the troop compartment of the SKOT-2AP armoured personnel carrier. It started with vacuuming the interior… and turned into a complete overhaul of that compartment. We’re removing flaking paint, and we’ve dismantled the fittings, which have been sandblasted and repainted. We’re sourcing the missing parts, seals, paint, periscopes, spotlights, lamps, etc.
We’ve managed to make or source further missing parts for the field kitchen, which was refurbished last year, such as grills, doors, valves, cables, mounting brackets and water buckets.
A lot of work also goes into maintaining the working machinery, where there is always something to be done. Replacing burnt-out parts, topping up fluids and oils, fixing leaks, adjustments, touch-ups… and so we reached May and June, when the rhythm of work is always tailored to the museum events which we feel we are co-hosting.
The Model-Making Picnic, which we initiated, proved very popular with visitors, for whom we had prepared a host of attractions. Then similar events took place during the 3 May Constitution Day celebrations, the Night of Museums and the Tank Crew Picnic. The latter event attracted 3,600 people to the museum, who marvelled at the vehicles we had started up and were operating!
Finally, some statistics. Over 700 hours of work at the museum have been recorded and approved by volunteers in the volunteer management system, with another 700 hours awaiting approval.
To help organise our work, we have also created a list of projects we have launched and tasks to be completed, which is available via the link
Text and photos: Błażej Mościpan – volunteering coordinator.
We are able to develop our volunteering activities thanks to financial support from the WoW w NGO! programme.
