Meet Featured Volunteers George & Jan Carlson

George and Jan Carlson enjoy spending time together and one way they choose to do just that is by volunteering at the Space Foundation Discovery Center – together.

George and Jan are both retired and have made their home in Colorado since 1983. They have two children – a son who lives in Broomfield, Colo., and a daughter in Dallas, Texas, – and three grandsons. George spent 21 years in the Air Force working as a communications center specialist and an aircraft control and warning systems operator.

After retiring from the Air Force, George worked as a certification and accreditation specialist, and has been retired “full-time” for four years. Jan retired last year after working in the administrative field for a government contractor dealing with acquisition of systems.

George started out volunteering with the Space Foundation at the 27^th National Space Symposium in 2011. On opening day of the Discovery Center in October 2012, both George and Jan volunteered for the very first shift with George helping out in the Light Security area and Jan working primarily at the Admissions Desk.

George’s favorite artifact in the El Pomar Space Gallery is the Lunokhod Rover, a Soviet lunar rover on loan from the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center. He also enjoys interacting with the children who come through the Discovery Center. He said, “It’s always fun to see the expressions of amazement on their faces when they walk in.”

Jan’s favorite part of the Discovery Center is the Science On a Sphere®. While working the admissions desk, she has also enjoyed finding out where visitors have traveled from when she gets their zip code at check-in. Over this past summer, for the Summer of Discovery, she had an opportunity to talk to visitors from all over the United States and Canada. Both George and Jan say they’ve “really enjoyed seeing the changes and the growth of the Discovery Center throughout its first year of operation.”

From helping to educate the next generation to meeting people from across the country and beyond, the benefits of volunteering with the Space Foundation are numerous. To read more about the benefits and how you can volunteer to help further the Space Foundation’s mission to advance space-related endeavors to inspire, enable and propel humanity, click here.

Plan your visit to the Discovery Center here.

This article is part of Space Watch: November 2013 (Volume: 12, Issue: 11).