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| Volunteers with the Strawberry River chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution volunteered recently at the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives. |
Five members
of the Strawberry River chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
volunteered Thursday, Oct. 17, to help preserve archival records at the
Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives.
“We are
grateful to our volunteers, all of whom are instrumental in helping NEARA staff
preserve Arkansas’s history and heritage and in making records more easily
accessible to the public,” said Fatme Myuhtar-May, archival manager.
The
Strawberry River chapter chose NEARA as part of DAR’s “Day of Service” event.
Volunteers Jan Lusk, of Ash Flat; Cynthia Clow-Elliott and Robert Elliott, both
of Salem; Shirley Blankenship, of Horseshoe Bend; and Clara L. Ballard, of
Evening Shade, donated six hours of volunteer time. The group unfolded 7 cubic
feet of materials from the Walnut Ridge Court records collection. Volunteers
removed rusted staples and paper clips, then placed the records into acid-free
archival containers to prepare them for indexing.
Without the
volunteers, staff would have spent days, if not weeks, unfolding the same
amount of records that DAR volunteers did in a single day, Myuhtar-May said.
NEARA staff can now index records at a faster rate, thanks to the work of
volunteers. Once indexed, the records will be searchable, which will help
patrons with their research.
The Walnut
Ridge Court records collection is one of the largest and most important
collections at NEARA. The records are used heavily by genealogists and academic
researchers. Processing the Walnut Ridge Court records collection is nearing
completion, thanks in large part to the volunteers.
“We are very
happy to be here helping with archival records,” said Lusk, who is a regent of
the Strawberry River chapter. “This kind of work falls in line with one of our organization’s
national goals: historic preservation.”
DAR
volunteers also participated in NEARA’s annual Volunteer Day event this past
June.
“We just
want to thank our many volunteers. Without you, it would not be possible to
process archival records at the fast speed that we currently maintain,”
Myuhtar-May said.
