Volunteer Spotlight, Curtis Brown
Curtis Brown
Ybor City Museum State Park
Curtis “Curt” Brown is a New York native that moved to Florida after completing college. His love for the outdoors came later in life after he completed his Florida Master Naturalist certification. He did a lot of work with the Hillsborough County Environmental Lands Acquisition Program which allowed him to work with various Florida State Parks.
Curt enjoys learning about the complexity of ecosystems and how they all work together which is exactly he got to do in that position. After an early retirement, Curt was looking for opportunities to still help with Florida State Parks and became a volunteer at Ybor City Museum State Park.
Curt’s role at the park is as a docent. He conducts tours around the museum and casita, interpreting the history of the Ybor City to visitors. He is very knowledgeable and can speak for hours about the story of how the city came to be. He knows so much about the history of the city that he was appointed to the Hillsborough County Historic Review Board because of his work at the museum.
Curt states that his favorite part about his position is that he gets to meet a variety of people, many visiting during vacation. He enjoys making a visit to the museum the cherry on top of a great vacation. He also loves being a part of the weekly events that happen at the park, even getting to help facilitate weddings!
In the future, Curt hopes to continue volunteering and helping the museum grow. One of his main goals is to attract even more visitation to the museum so that more people can learn about the incredible history of Ybor City.
Curt is proud of the work he does and hope to continue to be an integral part of the museum team.