Guide to the Arts spotlights volunteers — the secret ingredient inside South Florida’s cultural institutions

As part of our Arts Guide, which published in PRIME Magazine on Oct. 2, we wanted to shine a spotlight on volunteers at some of South Florida’s cultural institutions. Find their stories below.

And keep looking for special Arts Guide stories posted at SunSentinel.com every day this week.

Next time you visit a South Florida museum or attend a show, thank the volunteers.

You’re likely to encounter them as you step inside the building, take a tour or make your way to your seat. They get little notice from the public. But volunteers are essential to a flourishing cultural institution, sometimes front and center, more often behind the scenes.

For many, the motivation is simple: They want arts enthusiasts like themselves to have positive experiences at South Florida’s prestigious venues.

And they bring with them a wealth of life experience that they can often apply to a multitude of tasks, such as helping a child learn an instrument, making deliveries around town, organizing a library, or soothing the frayed nerves of a patron unable to find the right theater seat.

Cultural institutions are often strapped for cash and depend on generous donors — and these volunteers — to keep their doors open. Some institutions have a couple of volunteers. The Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale and its associated theaters, on the other hand, have a corps of 600 volunteer ushers, and they’re always looking for more.

The ushers are all theater-lovers, and many create social bonds that move outside the venue.

“Our volunteers get to know the other volunteers who work the same shift and form a team alongside our Guest Services staff,” said Shelly Bradshaw, the center’s vice president of operations. “We’ve seen so many friendships form through volunteering at the center, connections that last a lifetime.”

The Sun Sentinel wants to shine the spotlight on these local men and women who carry out crucial assignments for free and without much recognition for their efforts. Below, find profiles of four South Florida volunteers, recommended by their supervisors for their enthusiasm, energy and geniality. All have found supreme satisfaction at their chosen sites and blend seamlessly with paid staff, fellow volunteers and arts patrons seeking to learn more about our rich cultural scene.

Andrea Ross, Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens, Delray Beach

At the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in Delray Beach, say hi to Andrea Ross. You can’t miss her: She’s right at the front door.

Ross volunteers as a museum greeter, a welcoming presence with a smiling face and gregarious personality who offers guests a map and a guide to the museum and its grounds. The 200-acre site is an oasis of zen peacefulness that transports visitors to Japan through art exhibits, cultural festivals, an authentic tea house, and a .8-mile walk through landscapes filled with bridges, ponds and benches that are lovingly tended.

Ross said she manages a constant flow of museumgoers that continued to grow even during the COVID-19 pandemic, when stir-crazy locals wanted to get out of the house and considered the spacious gardens a safe bet.

“We were open when a lot of places weren’t,” said Ross, who retired from a career in hospitality and travel consulting. “Now we are becoming quite an international tourist attraction. I’m meeting people from all over the world.”

Ross, of Boynton Beach, is a Japanese cultural enthusiast who was a regular visitor to the museum before she began volunteering about five years ago. Besides serving as a greeter, she’s also involved behind the scenes, in the membership and inventory departments, where she helps document the collection of Japanese furniture, sculpture, crafts and artifacts.

Still, the front desk is her second home — you can find her there three days a week.

“The key is to give visitors as much information as possible in a little amount of time,” she said. “It’s a chance for me to meet so many different people and talk with them, even if only for a few minutes.”

Luis Hernandez, Stonewall National Museum and Archives, Fort Lauderdale

Volunteer work can take you into uncharted territory, teaching you new skills that somehow fit just right despite your lack of previous experience.

Luis Hernandez was an interior designer of commercial spaces for 40 years before retiring to Fort Lauderdale during the pandemic. Now he finds himself twice a week in the Stonewall National Museum’s archives, reading through news articles about LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) life and history and categorizing them for researchers.

“You learn a lot in the process of doing that,” Hernandez said. “Is the story about discrimination or harassment? It’s an important distinction. It’s been so refreshing to use my skills in a different way.”

The museum collects documents and memorabilia from the earliest days of the LGBTQ rights movement to the present day and hosts traveling exhibits, including the “Don’t Ask, Do Tell” show that spurred Hernandez to begin volunteering last year. “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was a policy in the military in the 1990s that allowed LGBTQ people to serve as long as they did not discuss their sexual preference.

Upon visiting, Hernandez, who had recently moved to Fort Lauderdale from Washington, D.C., said he was impressed with the exhibit and the staff’s professionalism.

“That was a Friday. By Monday, I had sent them a check and joined,” he said.

Hernandez also volunteers for special events at the museum, such as exhibit openings, and helps members check out library books.

“It’s opened up social opportunities for me,” Hernandez said. “I love the way everyone is so dedicated to the mission of the museum. I especially love our collection of early gay publications. It shows the desire of people to organize and connect.”

Jennifer Kerkhof, Broward Center for the Performing Arts, Fort Lauderdale

Imagine seeing some of Broadway’s greatest shows for free: “Hamilton,” “Phantom of the Opera,” “Six” (coming in October).

Jennifer Kerkhof does this on Thursday nights as an usher at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. For the past six years, she leaves her day job in the Broward schools deputy superintendent’s office once a week and gets to work assisting theatergoers in finding their seats or the bathrooms and answering their questions about the history of the site.

“I love theater so much,” she said. “Now I get to experience things I wouldn’t have known to see,” including operas, ballets and symphonies.

The Coral Springs resident arrives for her shift about 5:30 p.m. for shows that start at 7:30 p.m. After she settles in the guests, she and other ushers are able to watch the performance until intermission, when she rises to assist again.

Then, once the final curtain falls and guests have departed, she checks the seats for any items left behind. She takes umbrellas, wallets and other fallen objects to Guest Services after she marks down the seat number where she found them.

It’s a dream assignment, especially for a former Coconut Creek High School flute player who considers herself “obsessed with music.” A Broward Center season ticket holder before becoming a volunteer, she noticed a call for ushers and decided to attend an orientation. She thought it would be fun to see shows for free, but she never expected the camaraderie among the ushers and the affection she has developed for the center’s theatergoers. (And she remains a season ticket holder with her sister, sometimes seeing shows as many as four times.)

“It didn’t start out as a dream volunteer job, but it’s turned into that,” Kerkhof said. “I’ve been a patron of the theater, so it’s been wonderful to see the other side. It’s been a magical experience.”

Larry Castillo, Palm Beach Symphony, West Palm Beach

Larry Castillo, of Wellington, has volunteered for dog rescue organizations and clean water initiatives. But there’s something about a symphony, with its sense of order, conviviality and collaboration, that keeps him coming back each year.

As a Georgia resident, he volunteered for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for 25 years. When he moved back to South Florida in 2014 (he’s a Miami native), he prioritized volunteering at the closest orchestra, the Palm Beach Symphony, based in West Palm Beach.

“We are really entrenched in this work,” Castillo said of himself and his wife, Diana Gafford. In the winter season, they are either in the symphony office or at fundraising events several times a week. Duties have included filing, organizing mailings, transporting instruments and schmoozing with donors.

“You want to learn the names of the patrons. They love to be called by their names,” said Castillo, a retired IBM engineer.

Castillo said the gratitude of the symphony staff makes his work especially satisfying: “They are so appreciative, and they’re fun to work with.”

Castillo, who was a piano major at the University of Miami, has been thrilled to see how Palm Beach County residents are growing to love the symphony, with its school visits, instrument donation programs, lectures and concerts in multiple locations. He credits the foresight of David McClymont, the organization’s chief executive officer.

“His vision is that everyone know about the symphony,” Castillo said.