Become a Volunteer
Join our group of VIP Volunteers, Friends of the Garden
STUDENTS: Click to email our coordinator for available hours
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The Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden is proud to host an exclusive group of volunteers, with private membership privileges, known as the Friends of the Garden. This group supports the garden with various, specialized teams and has access to perks and merchandise available only to Friends members. Friends of the Garden members enjoy:
- Free parking
- Invitations to member-only events
- Invitations to Friends of the Garden only events
- Early access reservations to garden lectures and cultural programs
- 10% discount off Garden merchandise and exclusive Friends of the Garden merchandise
- Garden logo pin to show your support
- Reciprocal Admission to Gardens Across America through the American Horticulture Society's Reciprocal Admissions Program (RAP)
- FREE admission to over 800 museums nation-wide through the North American Reciprocal Museums Program (NARM)
Volunteers work with teams to help shape the direction and support of the Garden, give annually at whatever financial level they are comfortable with and decide on how many teams they want to serve on. Each Friends member will be able to join one or more Garden Teams based on interest. Here are the current available teams:
Development Team
- Drive donations
- Create fundraising campaigns
- Organize annual events
- Build relationships with individuals and organizations to secure philanthropic support
Community Engagement Team
- Community Engagement, city agencies, non-profits: Build relationships with individuals and organizations to develop collaborations
- Garden Collaboration: Phoenix, Portland & others
Programming Team
- Scheduling of programs throughout entire facility
- Open use planning
- Educational program planning
- Garden event planning
Communications Team
- Promotion and outreach to increase Garden visibility
- Social media sharing, video, photo assistance
- Assist in communications/marketing plan
Collection Curation Team
- Evaluate the Japanese Garden's art collection and other items stored at the University
- Develop procedure and process for accepting new donations
- Develop schedule for display of available items
Garden Curation Team
- Develop plant collection evaluation plan
- Consult on changes being made to the living collection
- Gardening activities and living collection care
University Engagement Team
- Engaging across all 7 colleges on campus to create new partnerships for research and promotion
- Meet with academic and garden professionals to suggest new programs and collaborations
Best of the Beach Team
- Administer student and faculty grants to support the Garden's annual theme
- Create calls for proposals, rubrics for evaluation and selection of awardees
Social Team
- Planning social events exclusively for Friends of the Garden members
