POTSDAM – More than 30 volunteers helped make the Potsdam Public Museum’s annual Holiday Open House and holiday school tours a success.

The museum is now engaged in a $10,000 drive to match a grant establishing an endowment for the museum.

More than 400 school children visited the museum with their classes in December to tour the annual holiday exhibit presentation.

The volunteers helped with music, crafts, reading, organizing classes and bus schedules, and serving punch and cookies during holiday activities.

The Friends of the Potsdam Museum, who started an endowment for the museum with the Northern New York Community Foundation (NNYCF), have begun a campaign to raise matching funds for the offer of $10,000 more from the foundation to the endowment. The foundation said there would be a deadline of five years to raise the $10,000 match, but the Friends have set a two-year deadline for themselves, according to . Potsdam Public Museum Director Mimi VanDeusen. She noted that donations to the Friends are not tax deductible, but contributions to the fund through the NNYCF are tax deductible.

VanDeusen presented her report on activities at the museum since Oct. 2017 at the village Board of Trustees meeting March 5.

Among other highlights were:

• working with Dr. Sharon Veigh Williams of the North Country Children’s Museum helping her locate items for display

• museum staff worked with people from town and village governments on panels for the Raquette River kiosk project

• SUNY Potsdam students from the college’s gallery and museum studies classes toured the museum

• three museum staff attended an all-day workshop at the Flower Memorial Library in Watertown on caring for paper in archival collections

• members of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association searched the museum archives for information on well known collector, traveler and photographer James Ricalton of Waddington.