By JOSEPH FITZGERALD

WOONSOCKET — The Museum of Work and Culture will celebrate its 11th anniversary this October and even though the museum has been open for more than a decade, co-director Raymond Bacon  is always amazed - and overjoyed - when he sees people who have lived in the city for years visit for the first time a museum that is virtually in their backyards.

Some of those first-time visitors turned out Monday for the musuem’s annual Labor Day open house and celebration, which saw hundreds of people taking advantage of the free admission to see the museum’s many exhibits, including the new Navigant Credit Union Treasury of Life Exhibit. The exhibit is the museum’s newest endeavor to preserve family history.
“This open house celebration is our way of celebrating Labor Day,” says Bacon, adding the museum has hosted the event for the past 10 years to commemorate Woonsocket’s first Labor Day celebration in 1899.
On that day, Bacon explained, Woonsocket and Blackstone Valley area mill workers took part in an event that included marches, parades and labor speeches at Cold Spring Park.
For former Woonsocket residents Jerry and Barbara Allard of Tennessee, who were in the city this week visiting relatives, the museum brings back a lot of memories.
The couple left Woonoscket 42 years ago, but have deep roots here. Barbara’s grandfather owned one of the former mills in the city and Jerry once worked at the former Danville Mill in the Bernon Mill Village of the city.
The Allards have been card-carrying members of the Museum of Work and Culture since the day it opened.
“Every time we come up to visit family we make it a point to stop by the museum to see the latest exhibits,” says Barbara. “They do a wonderful job here.”
Drawing a lot of interest Monday was the museum’s Treasury of Life Exhibit, which opened for the first time yesterday. In partnership with Navigant Credit Union, the museum came up with the concept last year in which families have an opportunity to purchase a Treasury of Life box similar to a bank safe deposit box where they can store important family memorabilia such as birth certifcates, imigration papers, photographs and letters. The keepsakes are deported in a box with a plaque bearing the family’s name. The 204 boxes are located in an open bank vault-like structure made of solid oak that is nearly completed, save for the installation of a new wood floor and some wall painting.
Thirty families have already committed to purchasing boxes, said musuem co-director Anne Conway, who spent much of Monday afternoon talking to visitors about the Treasury of Life Exhibit.
The boxes come in three sizes and prices and can be accessed by an authorized family member during regular museum hours. One-hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of the boxes goes directly to the museum’s endowment fund.
“Every family has a story to tell so we’re encouraging people to think about preserving their family history and to consider purchasing a treasury of life box,” said Conway, adding the cost of the boxes can be paid for with flexible and convient payment plans.
For more information about the Treasurey of Life exhibit, call the museum at (401) 769-9675.
Monday’s event wouldn’t have been complete without the many costumed interpretors from the museum’s award-winning History Alive program who were on hand to welcome visitors and discuss “working conditions” and other labor issues. They included Irene Blais, Danielle DeRotto, Romeo Berthiaume, Jean O’Donnell and Jason Metivier.
Metivier has been a costumed interpretor at the museum for the past seven years.
“I was looking for a job at the time and when I came here they said they had a job, but that it was volunteer work,” he said. “I took it anyway and have been here for seven years.”
Metivier says he enjoys working at the museum because he loves history and hopes one day to become a history teacher.
Bacon said it’s the many dedicated volunteers that are the life-blood of the museum.
“What amazes me are the many people who volunteer and give so much of their time to the museum,’’ he says. “They give life to the place.”
Volunteers  like Eugene A. Peloquin and Albert O. Brunelle, musuem Catholic School archivists, who were at the museum all day Monday to accept donated memorabilia and photographs for the popular Eugene A. Peloquin Catholic School Archive exhibit.
Monday’s open house, which was co-sponsored by the Rhode Island Labory History Society, Working Rhode Island and Greater Woonsocket Labor Council, also featured a new exhibit in the museum’s Changing Gallery entitled “A Walk Through American Communities.” The exhibit showcases the work of photographers David Amaral and Emilie Dubois.
Amaral is currently at work on the museum’s new baseball exhibit, which is expected to open to the public in a few weeks.