The reviews are in, and our volunteers are the best in Northwest Arkansas!
Volunteers help with nearly every aspect of the work we do at Walton Arts Center, from taking your tickets and helping you find your seat to stuffing programs into this magazine to helping with administrative tasks and so much more. They provide thousands of hours of service every year and we couldn’t operate without them! In the words of our director of Facilities Tom Debari, volunteers are “the glue of this performing arts center!”
But you don’t have to take our word for it – here are some stories shared by patrons about our volunteers going above and beyond!
“My three-year-old son has autism and we went into the theater a few times, but it seemed to upset him so he and I spent most our time outside of the theater,” says Mary Wilson, who attended Bluey’s Big Play with her family. “The volunteers and staff were so kind to us the entire time. Someone showed us to the sensory area, someone brought him pencils and paper to draw on ... they even let him touch the big balloon balls used for the end of the show before they brought them into the theater! He may not have sat through the whole show, but he had a great time thanks to the wonderful ushers and staff. I wanted to reach out with sincere thanks for everyone who worked in the lobby that day – everyone was so kind and so understanding of my son’s needs.”
“This volunteer at Walton Arts Center, Peggy, did the sweetest thing for me, a total stranger, last night,” says patron Bobbi Austin. “I had to step out during the first act of Mean Girls the Musical to do some over-the-phone-parenting (of which she had to hear every stern word). She reassured me that she was a mom and remembers those days and calmed me down enough to go back in and enjoy the musical. While we talked, she was crocheting something and explained that it was a dishtowel that she gives out to friends and family every year for Christmas. After the play was over, she found me in the crowd and gave me the dishtowel she had been working on during our conversation. It might be the best gift I receive this year – how kind and thoughtful!”
If you are interested in joining this stellar volunteer team and creating great experiences for patrons, students, teachers, donors and staff, please visit waltonartscenter.org/volunteer.
And, when you come to see a show during Volunteer Appreciation Month, you can leave your own note of appreciation! All month long in April, you can write down a special thanks or a memory for a volunteer on Post-it and put it on the displays in our lobby.