A SWEET SUMMER. For 30-plus years, the Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire has offered an annual "Teen Guide" program during the summer months. Since its inception, 350 local youths have dedicated their time – more than 11,000 hours – to the museum’s programming and yes, its ice cream parlor (pictured).

Whether you’ve walked through the Chippewa Valley Museum’s numerous exhibits or stopped in for an ice cream treat at its parlor, you are likely to be greeted by the friendly faces of its Teen Guide program during the summer months.

These young volunteers have become essential to the museum – the program has been offered for over 30 years – serving the community through admissions, tours, summer school activities and more.

According to Carrie Ronnander, the Chippewa Valley Museum executive director, this long-standing initiative precedes her arrival in 2000. The program, she said, underwent a revitalization roughly two decades ago to incorporate even more behind-the-scenes opportunities.

Since then, teens ages 13-17 have engaged in internal museum operations, adopted the roles of archivists or curators and stewarded local history for decades to come, in addition to the front desk and ice cream parlor responsibilities.

“The volunteers here are really the lifeline of our museum and being able to not only operate, but be able to provide all the programming for the community.”

Madison Stauffer

Chippewa Valley Museum visitor services coordinator

“Those who do this kind of work have to display a level of maturity and interest that tends to be beyond most young adolescents,” Ronnander observed. “The museum gets occasional visits by people who were teen guides as far back as the 1990s, so folks now in their forties.”

By Ronnander’s calculations, an average of 10 teen participants annually – across the last three-plus decades – suggests approximately 350 local youths have dedicated their summer months to the museum’s efforts.

Given that each Teen Guide participant contributes at least 32 hours of service throughout the program, this collective effort means more than 11,000 hours have been poured back into the local institution.

As this summer comes to an end, Madison Stauffer, the Chippewa Valley Museum’s visitor services coordinator, completed her latest Teen Guide program with a cohort of 12 students. In total, the group put in over 360 hours of volunteer work, she said.

Chippewa Valley Museum staffers and youths from the 2026 Teen Guide program (pictured) review current gallery installations and other archival-related resources. (Submitted photo)

Students in the program arrive at the museum from area public schools – and home-schooling – across the Chippewa Valley. This summer, their roles and responsibilities varied between care for archival collections, gardening work at the museum's Schlegelmilch House (517 S. Farwell St., Eau Claire) and leading summer school programming for younger kids.

“The volunteers here are really the lifeline of our museum and being able to not only operate, but be able to provide all the programming for the community,” Stauffer said. “I think it’s really impactful that community service (is) still something that families value.”

Most importantly, the Teen Guide program nurtures friendship between students from varying backgrounds and intergenerational connections through partnerships with senior volunteers at the Chippewa Valley Museum.

Stauffer noted, “it was really great to see the kids build confidence in different ways (from) being able to answer the phone … even helping out with the education summer school program.”

Plus, many of these teens found connections over mutual passions and extracurriculars outside of their volunteer hours, passions Stauffer believes further act as a bridge to foster close friendships  – despite coming from different social circles.

“A lot of them bonded over music and show choir programs,” Stauffer said. “I’m pretty sure I’ll see some (student) competitors between a couple of the different high schools.”

As the museum wraps up this year's program, teens and staff are already planning future contributions to the Chippewa Valley Museum for next summer. Although the program has traditionally been held solely during the summer, the museum's goal is to make the program year-round for families who are interested.

All the while, staff celebrate the new and curious minds who – for 30-plus summers – have joined in the fun and influenced the connections patrons feel to the city of Eau Claire and beyond, when they step through the museum's doors.

The Chippewa Valley Museum Teen Guide program will return in summer of 2027 and accept up to 15 students. To learn more about student opportunities, visit cvmuseum.com/learn-teach/teen-guides or contact Madison Stauffer via email at m.stauffer@cvmuseum.com. Visit the Chippewa Valley Museum inside Carson Park at 1204 E. Half Moon Dr., Eau Claire.