Fewer and fewer volunteers, too small a board and fewer and fewer visitors; “It was no longer possible with two board members. And in the past year, half of the volunteers quit. I was there three Sundays a month. It’s done,” says board member Josien Smit of the Viking Information Center.
‘I am a Viking’
Last November, the Viking Center made one last attempt NH Helps to get volunteers, but to no avail. That is annoying, says Smit: “While everyone drives around here with a car sticker ‘I am a Viking’, there is hardly anyone who comes to help.”
The Viking Center mainly became known after the discovery of a special one Viking treasure at Wieringen, in 1996. This turned out to be of international importance. The treasure is located in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. There is a replica of that first treasure in the Viking Center. A second Viking treasure found could still be seen in real life in the center.
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