AiP Mission
Connecting people and preservation through enriching experiential programs that safeguard heritage and foster community sustainability.
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The Story Behind AiP Hands-on Volunteer Vacations
Adventures in Preservation was founded in 2001 by two women with a great love of historic buildings and a strong desire to travel and understand the world. While perusing the travel section of the Boulder Bookstore, the Volunteer Vacation section suddenly brought everything into focus. Judith Broeker and Jamie Donahoe combined their goal of saving historic buildings with the concept of experiential travel, and created AiP’s hands-on preservation vacations.
Work started on several sites in the U.S., and as word spread, requests for help began to pour in from around the world, underscoring the great potential of using volunteers to restore historic buildings. In supporting community-based preservation initiatives, we discovered that our love of old buildings could translate into environmental and economic sustainability for communities.
Gyumri, Armenia
May 2018
“Five American women impacted the community simply by sanding and varnishing balcony posts. People saw them walking to work, knew they spent their own money to come, and asked: ‘Why are they here?’ They began to rethink how they could approach their own problems.”
— Gyumri resident
Adventures in Preservation has become a leader in offering volunteer vacations directed toward saving distinctive architecture that defines a region’s history and culture. The fact that historic preservation is innately “green” provides yet another compelling reason for restoring historic buildings for integrated community use, from affordable housing to community centers.
Adventures in Preservation’s staff and volunteers work with passion to save the world’s architectural heritage with the goal of benefiting communities worldwide. We are dedicated to bringing people and preservation together in meaningful partnerships.
AiP Vision
AiP envisions a world where people use, understand, and appreciate historic buildings that are vital to economic and environmental sustainability and preserve cultural identity.
AiP Reports
Read our newest 2019 Annual Report
2018 Annual Report (pdf)
2017 Annual Report (pdf)
AiP’s Team
Adventures in Preservation (AiP) has recently embarked on an ambitious plan to grow the organization and enhance our effectiveness. With 49+ projects in 10 countries under our belt, we know there is a lot more we can be doing to safeguard cultural heritage, foster community sustainability and provide outstanding travel experiences. Our staff, Board of Directors, interns, and all our Jammers are key.
AiP’s Co-Founder
Judith Broeker
BOARD MEMBER - Program Director
Boulder, colorado
Judith is the founder of Adventures in Preservation, which was preceded by her own company, Preservation UnLtd. She is a materials conservation specialist with both research and hands-on experience gained at historic structures in the United States and abroad. Judith holds a Master’s degree in History with an emphasis in historic preservation. She responds to all AiP requests for preservation assistance and works with community members to develop each project. For her, nothing is better than exploring a historic site with camera in hand.
AiP’s Board of Directors
In alphabetical order:
Lorie komlyn
BOARD MEMBER - director of innovation and outreach
Boston, Massachusetts
Lorie Komlyn is an architectural historian who strongly believes in the preservation of historic sites as a pathway by which people can connect with culture. A trained ballet dancer and skater, Lorie enjoys traveling the world, picking up new books, and visiting historic houses. She has most recently served as the Architectural Historian for the city of Boston, and also has decades of experience as a college counselor for gifted high school students.
Lorie holds a Masters of Studies in Architectural History from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, a Juris Doctorate from Golden Gate University, and has studied at short term programs at universities around the world. She serves on a number of boards for historic houses in the New England region.
SHARON KONG-PERRING
BOARD MEMBER - director of marketing & outreach
Los Angeles, california
Sharon Kong-Perring is a historian and academic by day and a globetrotting travel journalist by night. In her history life, she specializes in artifact and collections care with experience in 17th-19th century American and British objects and an affinity for Asian and Oceanic objects. As an academic, Sharon is pursuing her PhD in media and cultural studies, researching audiences, fandoms, and popular culture with intersections in history. She is passionate about global cultures and history, and in her travel journalism, she loves to highlight cultural experiences available to travelers.
Sharon splits her time between her home in southern California, her program in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and active fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea. Though a re-transplanted Californian, Sharon is a New England girl at heart, with most of her history work exhibited in Boston. All four places are centers for dialogue on conservation and preservation and the presence of history and historic sites.
PAUL WRIGHT
BOARD MEMBER - IT DIRECTOR
KENMORE, WASHINGTON
Paul Wright was the Director-Geographic Information Systems, Office of Geospatial Information at the State of Missouri and has more than 35 years in Information Technology (IT). He retired in 2016.
Growing-up in central Missouri, Paul graduated with a BA in Computer Science from the University of Missouri-Columbia. Paul holds a Masters degree in Information Systems Management.
He became interested in history during high school and has taken a number of courses in anthropology and archaeology over the past several years. Paul also volunteers to help with an archaeological field school at a local college. His main interest is ancient history.