A busy museum recess and busier future ahead!
Hello everyone! My name is Tomas Monzon and I'm the curator at the West Pasco Historical Society's Dr. Rao Musunuru Museum & Library (long name, I know). A native of Buenos Aires, Argentina and a long-time resident of Miami, I moved to New Port Richey in 2021 and have fallen in love with the city's history, as well as that of surrounding areas.
I would like to take a moment to thank our volunteers, both present and former. The Society was formed in 1973 after the desire and need for a historical society became evident. Since then, the nonprofit Society and its museum have depended greatly on volunteer work to amass, curate and share a wonderful collection of artifacts, photographs, videos and knowledge with the public. We would not be who we are today without our volunteers and Board members.
Hand-in-hand with our volunteers, our members and donors help us tremendously. Volunteer work is great, but sometimes things just plain cost money. We currently have over 100 members - some of them lifetime members.
Donors including the esteemed Dr. Musunuru, Pasco County and the City of New Port Richey help us keep the doors open and work on our mission of preserving the history of the local community and furthering the historic knowledge of its citizens.
It's my mission to involve our community as much as possible. The museum is currently closed as part of our yearly recess, but we are re-opening on Friday, November 4 with our regular hours of Friday to Sunday, 1 to 4 p.m. Shortly before and during our recess, we've hosted a few events and tours that have really had a great turnout:
Two sold-out presentations on the history of the Hacienda Hotel
Three walking tours of New Port Richey's downtown
Private tours of the museum with Pasco County, the Trinity YMCA and a local homeschool group
Amongst some of our future plans are boat, kayak and bike tours of New Port Richey and surrounding areas as well as nighttime walking tours that will give guests a chance to make an evening out of it and hang out Downtown for food and drinks after the tour.
We also have our first-ever History Trivia night coming up soon! It'll be held on October 26 at Cotee River Brewing! I'll be hosting it, giving out prizes to the nerdiest and buffiest of history buffs. Should be a good time!
I'll take the liberty on speaking on behalf of myself, our volunteers and our Board of Directors and say that we look forward to seeing you at our museum soon. We miss you!