God Bless the Volunteers!

Among our many other duties, my office (City of Pasadena Public Affairs Office) oversees the Information Booth at City Hall where 20 or so volunteers work a half-day shift once a week, usually with a partner.

They assist thousands of visitors every month, helping them find their way to city offices, giving them directions to local museums, restaurants and shopping districts, telling them that no, this isn't the courthouse, etc.

Our youngest volunteer is in college and our oldest is. . .well, it wouldn't be ladylike for me to reveal that!

Today we had an appreciation luncheon for our booth volunteers. We do this twice a year, always at a different local attraction so the volunteers can get a full understanding of the places to which they are referring visitors. We've had catered luncheons for our volunteers at Huntington Gardens, Castle Green, Fenyes Mansion, Norton Simon Museum and many other locations.

Today it was at Pacific Asia Museum.



We were going to do it in their beautiful interior courtyard but decided to move it indoors because of the heat. The staff there was very accommodating and set us up upstairs where the current exhibition is "Gangjin Goryeo Celedon: The Millenium Face." How wonderful to have our luncheon there, surrounded by lovely works of art. More about the art at the end of this post.



There was an initial meet-and-greet.



Linda Centell, Bernard Melekian and I took turns expressing thanks for our volunteers' dedication and gracious service.



David Spiro, on staff at Pacific Asia Museum, gave a general description of the museum to our volunteers plus some history and interesting biographical information about the museum's founder, Grace Nicholson.



Then a beautiful buffet luncheon of Cajun meat loaf with all the trimmings.



Linda and Barney distributed special gifts to each of the volunteers.



Here are some additional photos from the luncheon:







On my way out I snapped a few photos outside:







About the exhibition upstairs:

The Millenium Face provides western audiences with a rare opportunity to view beautiful Goryeo celadon and see the techniques involved in making it. Celadon came to Korea from China during the Shilla Dynasty (668-935 AD) and flourished during the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392 AD). By the 12th century, potters achieved a blue-green hue and inlaid technique called sanggam.

The exhibition is only there until July 12, so try not to miss it!