The most interesting objects she has ever unearthed personally were on St. John’s, at a pre-Columbian site. She discovered beads, created from ocean shell, no wider than her little fingernail. They were perfectly round, perfectly drilled, ostensibly to be strung. “How? How could they do that?” she still asks. “Cleaning the beads made them come alive.”
In addition to her time and talent, Dion also donates treasure. “I do because I can,” she said. “It’s a contribution that makes life easier here, [like] chairs that are needed but aren’t in the budget. Linda [Pansing, curator of archaeology] can go buy something she needs.” Dion gives through her retirement assets, from which she has to take a minimum distribution each year. People who give this way at age 70 or older can make the gift tax free.
“I know how fortunate I am,” Dion says of her volunteering odyssey, which has taken her from Portugal to Nepal. “It is enriching to me.”
Although there are many types of volunteer opportunities at Ohio History Connection, the way Dion sees it, “Some volunteers last. Some don’t. I enjoy the satisfaction of learning history I had never learned and making new friends. I made one phone call, talked to someone and they said, ‘come along!’”
If you, too, would like to experience hands-on history and contribute to the understanding of Ohio’s past, visit our volunteer page to see if your own sweet adventure may await.
