Hank Snow volunteer hired as curator

“I would like to see the museum be a lot more, for one thing educational,” says Wendy Rofihe, “I would also like to work with the whole train part of it too and the building itself.”

Rofihe volunteered at the Hank Snow Country Music Centre from May to October 2007.

The centre’s manager, Lauren Tutty then left her position last year. In Oct. of 2007, Rofihe was hired.

As curator, Rofihe says her interest lays in the museum part of the centre and the historical fixing of the displays.

Originally from Bridgewater, she has degrees in art history and heritage conservation and Canadian studies.

She has also worked as a tailor.

Rofihe has received an Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada Music Memories grant, which is run by Canadian Heritage.

The goal is to “work with the collection here, to better preserve it and make it available to the public,” she explains. “Soon people will be able to come and listen to the records and we’ll be digitizing everything.”

Most of the records are not available on CD, she adds.

Rofihe estimates this work will be complete when the Hank Snow Country Music Centre opens in the summer.

She will then work on the centre’s website, she adds.

“I’d just like to get more activity going here,” she says; “Have it be more part of the town as well as being a tourist attraction.”

While researching Hank Snow, Rofihe discovered he supported a foundation to “combat child abuse.”

One of her goals is to find a way to incorporate into the museum a group that works with abused children.

For more information, visit www.hanksnow.ca.

The Hank Snow Country Music Centre’s hours are Monday to Friday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Summer hours starting mid-May will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week.