Needed — people to conduct tours of the Mary Olson Farm and teach those curious tots about farming.

That’s the cry going out from the White River Valley Museum staff, whose ranks of volunteer docents have thinned over time and with attrition.

“We’ve lost a few key volunteers, we’ve had some that have had illnesses, some that can’t volunteer any more, people that have passed away,” said Rachael Burrum, curator of education for the musem. “So our corps of volunteers has diminished a bit, and we have lost some of our key tour guides to conduct field trips.”

During the fall every first grader and every sixth grader in the Auburn School District visits the Mary Olson farm on Green River Road. To make make that happen, Burrum said, the museum needs a healthy brace of guides.

What the museum is looking for, Burrum said, is new faces, folks who might be interested in teaching school children about farm history, farming sustainability, healthy salmon habitats, chickens, apple squeezin’ even PH levels in water.

The museum needs anywhere from 5 to 10 new recruits willing to make a two-to-three-hour commitment each month. The idea, Burrum said, is to have a large corps so that no one feels he or she is being asked to do too much, to the neglect of other responsibilities in their busy lives.

Volunteers are carefully, thoroughly trained in all the information they need to get across to the young ‘uns, Burrum said.

“We have stations at the farm, so the docents will be in charge of one station during the field trips, teaching the kids, for instance where milk comes from, how milk gives us cream and how cream is made into butter. We have a large range of subjects, but no one person has has to know everything about everything.”

The field trips are aligned with curriculum-based assessments to supplement what kids learn in the classroom with real-life experiences.

“It’s amazing to see what happens when kids actually learn where eggs come from,” Burrum with a laugh.

Prospective volunteers should give the museum a call at 253-288-7433 to get a volunteer application. If it feels like a good fit to WRVM staff, applicants will be invited to the annual volunteer training on Aug. 30 at the farm.

School tours do not start until til late September, Burrum added, so there will be plenty time to get those farming knowledge chops up to snuff.