Practical Preservation Podcast featuring Judith Broeker of Adventures in Preservation

Judith Broeker from Adventures in Preservation joined the Practical Preservation podcast for this episode. AiP is a non-profit organization that promotes heritage tourism by combining travel, new skills, and community intuitive. They organize travel to various locations (in the United States and Europe scheduled for 2019) to work with skilled craftspeople on a preservation site in need of repairs.

Contact information:

Judith Broeker – jbroeker@adventuresinpreservation.org

Bio:

Adventures in Preservation was founded in 2001 by two women with a great love of historic buildings and a strong desire to travel and understand the world. While perusing the travel section of the Boulder Bookstore, the Volunteer Vacation section suddenly brought everything into focus. Judith Broeker combined her goal of saving historic buildings with the concept of experiential travel, and created Adventures in Preservation’s hands-on preservation vacations.

Work started on several sites in the U.S., and as word spread, requests for help began to pour in from around the world, underscoring the great potential of using volunteers to restore historic buildings. While supporting community-based preservation initiatives, AiP staff and volunteers discovered that their love of old buildings could translate into environmental and economic sustainability for communities.

In 2019, we are working with communities in Virginia, Montana, Scotland, and Armenia.

Founder, Judith Broeker is a materials conservation specialist with both research and hands-on experience gained at historic structures in the United States and abroad. Judith holds a degree in Asian Studies, along with a Master’s degree in History with an emphasis in historic preservation. She is the Program Director of AiP and responds to all requests for preservation assistance. She also works with community members to fully develop each project. For her, nothing is better than exploring a historic building with camera in hand.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in to the Practical Preservation Podcast. Please take a moment to visit our website practicalpreservationservices.com for additional information and tips to help you restore your historical home. If you’ve not done so, please subscribe to us on iTunes, Stitcher, or SoundCloud, and also like us on Facebook. Welcome to the Practical Preservation Podcast, hosted by Danielle and Jonathan Keperling. Keperling Preservation Services is a family-owned business based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the preservation of our built architectural history for today’s use as well as future generations. Our weekly podcast provides you with expert advice specific to the unique needs of renovating a historic home, educating by sharing our, from the trenches preservation knowledge, and our guest’s expertise, balancing modern needs while maintaining the historical significance, character, and beauty of your period home.

Danielle:

Thank you for joining us for the Practical Preservation Podcast. Today, we have Adventures in Preservation. Adventures in Preservation was founded in 2001 by two women with a great love of historic buildings and a strong desire to travel and understand the world, while perusing the travel section of the Boulder Book Store. The volunteer vacation section suddenly brought everything into focus. Judith Broeker, combined her goal of saving historic buildings with the concept of experiential travel and created Adventures in Preservation, hands-on preservation vacations. Work started on several sites in the US and as word spread requests for help began to pour in from around the world. Underscoring the great potential of using volunteers to restore historic buildings while supporting community-based preservation initiatives. Is it AIP? Is that what you say?

Judith Broeker:

Yeah. Correct.

Danielle:

AIP staff and volunteers discovered that their love of old buildings could translate into environmental and economic sustainability for communities.

Danielle:

In 2019, we were working with communities in Virginia, Montana, Scotland, and Armenia. Founder, Judith Broeker, is a materials conservation specialist with both research and hands-on experience gained at historic structures in the United States and abroad. Judith holds a degree in Asian studies, along with a master’s degree in history, with an emphasis on historic preservation. She is also the program director of AIP and responds to all requests for preservation assistance. She also works with community members to fully develop each project. Nothing is better than exploring a historic building with a camera in hand. So thank you for joining us, Judith.

Judith Broeker:

Well, thank you for having me.

Danielle:

I spent some time on your website preparing for this and I was excited. I was thinking… I don’t know if I could talk my husband into going to work for vacation.

Judith Broeker:

Oh yeah. Well there, it just takes a certain kind of person. Some people think we’re crazy and other people love it. So it goes both ways.

Danielle:

Yes. How did you get started in preservation?

Judith Broeker:

Well, I had another degree actually in public health and it was okay, but I wasn’t really enjoying it. And then suddenly in the mail, I got this sort of a newsletter from the National Trust. This was in the mid 1980s talking about this new upcoming field of historic preservation. And as I read, I just thought, “Oh my gosh, I love this.” This is exactly what I’d like to do. So I went back and got another degree, but took me where I wanted to go.

Danielle:

Oh, that’s it. That’s exciting. Yeah. I think, the more I do these interviews, the more I find that people are coming into preservation, usually as a second career. And that might be changing now with some I’ve been noticing that common theme.

Judith Broeker:

And we do have students who come, who are in other fields, but want to see what preservation is all about. And they come to our projects and then sometimes do change majors. So some of them are figuring it out younger than I did.

Danielle:

Yes. Yes. So why did you start your business or what prompted you to start the program?

Judith Broeker:

I had a job in preservation and worked in an office and all the men got to go out in the field and see the old buildings and do the work, take the photos, and then they would come back and put it on my desk. And I wrote the report. And although I didn’t mind doing that, I thought, “Hmm, I really want to be out in the field and learning and seeing all these buildings and sites.” So, as you said in the introduction, I also had a part-time job at the Boulder Book Store. And when I started going through the volunteer vacation section, I just thought this would be so perfect. You get to travel, you get to save buildings and learn skills. So, that’s how it all started.

Danielle:

Yes, yes. And that sounds exciting to me too. Were you doing mostly documentation of buildings in the… And when you were writing the reports, is that what your primary focus was?

Judith Broeker:

Well, my boss actually, sort of, went from beginning to end. We’d do the documentation and then actually do the restoration preservation work, conservation work, whichever word you like. And it was really, the projects were so interesting, but I really wanted to be more involved, hands-on.

Danielle:

Yes, yes. So tell me about the program?

Judith Broeker:

So the way our projects are set up, we have a page on our website that says, “Nominate a project,” and we get really good requests. And unfortunately, we can’t take them all, but if the project that’s being requested seems feasible in the sense that it makes a good learning experience for our volunteer teams and there’s funding and a few other things. We need a strong local partner. Then we will accept the project. And each project is set up like a volunteer vacation where people register and they pay a set fee, it covers their food, lodging. We always take excursions to visit all the fun sites in the area. And it covers their training and materials and tools and all that. So for one fee, that we try to keep as low as possible, people can come for a week or two weeks and learn skills and actually do the work.

Danielle:

Do you do the training onsite then when-

Judith Broeker:

Yes.

Danielle:

Okay.

Judith Broeker:

We have an expert in whatever particular skill or whatever that we are going to handle and that you don’t need any experience to come and attend our projects and you get trained by the expert. And then that person also oversees us as we do the work to make sure it’s being done well.

Danielle:

And that was actually my next question of was there any skills or requirements for your volunteers? And one thing that I noticed on the website was that it was mostly focused on one skill for the week, which I think is manageable rather than trying to train a bunch of people to do a bunch of different things.

Judith Broeker:

Right? At the most we’ll have maybe two main tasks that we need to get done, but the groups tend to be maybe between five and 15 people, because we want people to have the opportunity to always be in there and working and not standing back and waiting. And so the groups can’t be too large. So each expert can handle maybe 10 to 15 max, and allow everyone to participate and really go home with some new skills and a really great experience.

Danielle:

Are the backgrounds of the people that come to volunteer. Are they historic homeowners? Are they professionals, like preservation professionals? What?

Judith Broeker:

Yeah, it’s such a variety.

Danielle:

Okay.

Judith Broeker:

We do have historic homeowners. And we do have professionals. We have students or early career folks. And then the retirees who like to travel and try something different. We have a fair number from that group. So I like it because it’s really a wonderful mix of ages and experience. And some people are there just because they like to travel, not so much for the skill learning, but we all have a great time.

Danielle:

Yes. That sounds like a learning experience all around.

Judith Broeker:

Right. Right.

Danielle:

How do you choose your projects as they come in and people are pitching their project to you? What determines what project gets selected?

Judith Broeker:

Right. We need a really strong local partner because usually there isn’t enough funding for us to be flying or driving or whatever, traveling back and forth to the site. And so there’s a lot of prep work, and we do depend on the local organization or individual that we partner with to help with a lot of the organizational work setting things up. So, that’s important. And like I mentioned, we really look for a good learning experience. So it needs to be something that’s interesting, fun, useful for the volunteer teams to learn. And sometimes when it’s just up to me or we have other factors are equal, we pick a place that we think would just be great to travel that we haven’t been before. And also the need of the community that I should say is quite high on the list of criteria.

Danielle:

Yeah. And I would think that the attractiveness of where to travel to is important, especially for getting people that want to go.

Judith Broeker:

Right. And I will say it’s so subjective because project requests come in to me, like from Albania and I’m like, “Oh, that is so cool.” You know, I would never go there otherwise, but then it almost limits the numbers who will sign up because people are a little afraid or that sort of thing.

Danielle:

Yeah.

Judith Broeker:

So we just try different locations and see what people want. We do put out questionnaires sometimes to say, “where would you like to travel?”

Danielle:

Yeah. Some feedback. Yeah. So what do you wish that you knew when you got started that you know now?

Judith Broeker:

What do I wish I still knew now that I don’t know now. We started this strictly from the love of old buildings. We’re preservationists. We had no business skills and a nonprofit is a business like any other business. And that is where we struggle the most is just running a business because we did not know how to do that. And still do struggle with that a bit. And that’s probably the main thing, I didn’t have any idea what all was involved, but you learn as you go.

Danielle:

And I think that’s true. A lot of times in the trades people go into business for themselves, and they’re really good at their craft, but they’re not necessarily good at the business side.

Judith Broeker:

Right. And fundraising for us is always the biggest, biggest problem. The field of preservation isn’t necessarily that well funded. It’s very competitive. And so we’re trying to be creative and point out what a good educational experience it is, how it helps the economy of the communities we work in, and that sort of thing. But fundraising is a huge challenge.

Danielle:

Is the majority of your fundraising, is it grants or is it small donors, individual donors?

Judith Broeker:

We try it all. We do have some small donors. We go for grants and we do try to get corporate sponsors, but some of our locations, like Armenia and Albania and those kinds of places, it’s hard to get a corporate sponsor because it’s totally outside of their realm of where they work and where they want their name put out there. So yeah, we’re trying to just figure out the best way to put it all together and be funded. And we’re still working on that.

Danielle:

Yeah. I can imagine that would be a challenge, but having a wide variety of a wider base is better than trying to do it all from one source.

Judith Broeker:

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And also we don’t necessarily want to go back to the same location every time, and the communities that need us are often in places where the corporations don’t care so much because they’re not involved there.

Danielle:

Right. Yeah.

Judith Broeker:

So we haven’t quite come up with the answer, but we keep going. So…

Danielle:

Would you say then that the fundraising is your biggest challenge with the program?

Judith Broeker:

Yes. Absolutely.

Danielle:

Yeah. So how can someone help and get involved?

Judith Broeker:

Well, you can get involved at several levels. You can register to come to a project, and that could be the most fun way to be involved. And we also do have volunteers on our staff that have certain skills that we need, like an accountant who volunteers. And we’re always, always, as I mentioned, looking for people who actually know how to write grants and that do fundraising that are willing to, if not do it for us, then teach us or work with us. And there’s several people who will go talk to university classes in their communities, so they don’t have to travel to do it. They are just supporters of ours and they like what we do and they spread the word for us. So…

Danielle:

Okay. So you can travel, you can do some things local, or you can offer your talents. And I’m sure you accept money too.

Judith Broeker:

Yes. Yes.

Danielle:

So how-

Judith Broeker:

Don’t know what to do with your money, we will put it to good use.

Danielle:

How can our listeners get in contact with you?

Judith Broeker:

You can go to our website adventuresandpreservation.org, and there’s a contact us page. Or you can just email me and do you want me to spell it out or…

Danielle:

Sure. And I’ll make sure it’s on our website too, so we can find you.

Judith Broeker:

So, you can just email me at jbroeker@adventuresandpreservation.org. That’s spelled J-B-R-O-E-K-E-R. And though, you can always call the phone number on our website as well. Sometimes it’s easier just to call and ask questions and that’s fine too.

Danielle:

Definitely. Of the volunteer opportunities you have for this year coming up, are any of them full or are there still opportunities for travel?

Judith Broeker:

None of them are totally full in Scotland. One week is full, but then we have a second week. So we have a project in Montana, which is just starting. It’s at this amazing ghost town and that’s still… It’s about half full. And then we have a project we do every year in Virginia, that’s half preservation and half archeology, and has now gotten into drone technology and really some interesting things, and that has space. And then we have our Armenia project, again, maybe half full or a little more. And two projects in Scotland, one at a historic bridge at the side of a castle and another in a historic glasshouse or greenhouse that we’re working on. So…

Danielle:

Yeah, I was just thinking, are there any age requirements or do you allow children?

Judith Broeker:

Well, really it’s not anything most kids would be interested in. Our requirement is 18 and older.

Danielle:

Okay.

Judith Broeker:

But if there are high school students or occasionally junior high, you have to come with a parent or guardian, unless you’re almost 18 and parents sign waivers and such. So occasionally, we do have high school age, but for the most part it’s 18 and over.

Danielle:

Okay. Very good. Well, I thank you so much for sharing your program with us. I think that people will be interested to hear about it. I kind of just stumbled upon it looking online. So I’m glad that I found you.

Judith Broeker:

I am too. I know we hear that a lot, even though we try to be on social media and so the more we can talk, the happier we are.

Danielle:

Very good. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

Judith Broeker:

Yes. Thank you.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to the Practical Preservation Podcast. The resources discussed during this episode are on our website at practicalpreservationservices.com forward slash podcast. If you received value from this episode and know someone else that will get value from it as well, please share it with them. Join us next week for another episode of the Practical Preservation Podcast. For more information on restoring your historic home, visit practicalpreservationservices.com.

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