Up to date information on the comings and goings in The Diefenbunker: Canada's Cold War Museum. Also a behind the scenes look at how the museum operates and how the museum team is working after our capacity expansion project to which grew our capacity from 60 to 420 in July 2010!

Winner of the Professional Development Award for 2010

Posted by Programs Manager On 14:27

From left to right: Board Member, Patricia
den Boer; volunteer, J.J. Gariepy; and,
Education & Volunteer Manager, Heather
Montgomery. 2011

The Diefenbunker's Annual General Meeting for 2010 took place on December 7, 2011 in our cafeteria space. We were proud to present our Volunteer Recognition awards for 2010. Volunteers are nominated by staff and Board Members, and were presented at the AGM by Board Member Patricia den Boer. The Professional Development Award is given each year to a volunteer who uses his or her professional services to maintain and enhance the operations of the Diefenbunker.

Jean-Jacques Gariepy, better known to us as J.J., has been a volunteer at the Diefenbunker since early 2010. He began as a Library and Archives volunteer, bringing his years of experience in document and information management to our collection. He has since worked tirelessly to properly identify and label our non-historic display and exhibit items.

It wasn’t long before we took him up on another of his many skills – translation. J.J. has successfully and professionally translated dozens of documents for us, everything from lesson plans and educational programming to website text and registration forms. In 2010, he worked closely with Christine McGuire to provide the French text necessary for Project Rustic. J.J. is also the man behind the French version of our Audio Guide, our French Visitor’s Guide and countless other French texts for brochures and signs.


It’s not only J.J.’s long list of contributions that make him the winner of 2010’s Professional Contribution Award. J.J.’s attitude and endless willingness to help the Diefenbunker in any capacity make him a joy to work with. He consistently provides us with professional quality services within very short deadlines, and always does so happily.