Okay, okay—sorry for the lame title, but I can’t resist a rhyme. In all seriousness, though, so much of the hard work at the Smithsonian is done by volunteers, and we would be remiss to not recognize them during National Volunteer Week.

As noted in last week’s blog post, over 6,000 volunteers contribute approximately 570,000 hours of volunteer services each year to the Smithsonian Institution, conducting tours, assisting visitors, leading educational activities, providing support for special events, and working behind the scenes. For anyone counting, that is the equivalent of 14,250 average work weeks, or over 274 average work years!

From working on restoring 1st century murals and observing lion behavior, to translating and cataloguing, volunteers at the Smithsonian do a little bit of everything, as you can see in the slideshow below. To those who volunteer, thank you for your hard work—the Smithosnian couldn’t run without you. And if you’re interested in volunteering, check out these opportunities online.