Albany Carousel: Free Shoot

 

The Historic Carousel and Museum is located on 1st Ave in Albany, Oregon. It is open Thursday through Sunday from 11AM- 4PM. Admission is free, rides tokens are $2 each, food and drinks can be purchased. It consists of all hand-carved and hand-painted animals on an antique platform that dates back to 1909. Each animal is sponsored by a business or person to keep creating the last 15 animals needed to complete the carousel. The carousel is a non-profit organization with a gift shop, free tours, a concession stand, and a beautiful merry-go-round.

Ray Kopczynski is a volunteer at the carousel and has been over the past year. Since COVID has broken out, they have lost about half of their volunteers and are strongly encouraging new people to come in and assist. This facility runs on 99% of volunteers' hard work and dedication to carve, paint, and work at the museum stations. A website link to the volunteer application can be found at the bottom of this post. 

This is an upcoming animal, Kitty the Unicorn. Each animal is hand-carved without the use of electrical tools. The approximated time it would take to finish an animal and be added to the carousel was about 7-9 years. Now with COVID and the diminished number of volunteers, it has prolonged to about 15-20 years. The organization encourages volunteers to sign up, no experience is needed, and learn how to carve animals and take on other responsibilities at the museum.

To volunteer, please visit https://www.volgistics.com/ex/portal.dll/ap?ap=1336466415 or https://albanycarousel.com/volunteer/ to learn more about volunteer opportunities.

Please visit the "Gallery View: Carousel" tab to see more photos of this location.