A spokesperson for Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach says if not for volunteers, the museum would be a ghost town.

This is National Volunteer Week and Anne Toews says at the museum they use about 1,000 volunteers each year, donating between 10,000 and 13,000 hours of their time. Toews says if every volunteer was paid minimum wage for their hours donated, the museum would shell out an extra $143,000 per year in wages.

According to Toews, MHV could not function without volunteers. She says a lot of programs would be canceled, there would be no festivals and the General Store would be permanently closed.

The museum has volunteers ranging from about 8 to 90 years of age. Toews notes the youngest volunteers are able to help with different kinds of demonstrations, sell candy in the candy booth and collect tickets for the barrel train and wagon rides. She says the older volunteers are sometimes interpreters in the historical buildings or do data entry or sell tickets.

Toews says it is getting more and more difficult to find volunteers each year. She says the older ones are retiring and there are plenty of other opportunities for people to volunteer elsewhere.

Al Hamm has been volunteering at MHV since May 2002. Though he has helped out in many capacities over the years including setting up the tent and organizing Tractor Trek, Hamm says his main responsibility is acting as an interpreter of the windmill.

"I like to volunteer here because I'm running a very unique machine that is part of our Mennonite history," says Hamm. "Also because I meet a lot of people from all over the world, and it's just very interesting to interact with people of different faiths, different types of people from wherever."

Hamm says being windmill interpreter, he gets asked the same questions over and over. Some of those common questions include: How much wind do you need? How much horsepower does a windmill produce? Is the wheat organic? What do you do with the flour?

"Volunteers have a feeling of accomplishment and pride in what they do," he says. "Things that they do that probably wouldn't get done if volunteers weren't available."

Hamm gives between 500 and 600 hours of his time each year to the museum. As someone who has toured other museums in the world, Hamm says he understands the importance of his specific role. He notes there is a big difference between reading a few plaques at an attraction and being able to speak to an interpreter or a survivor of a certain incident.

Toews says without volunteers like Hamm, MHV would be a sad place.

"They are indispensable, they are our lifeblood, we can't function without them," she says. "MHV owes its existence to the initiative and energy of the early volunteer founders."

Mennonite Heritage Village will be holding a volunteer orientation Thursday evening.