Guides, educators sought: The Rhode Island Historical Society is recruiting volunteer guides and educators for its John Brown House Museum in Providence.

Training will take place at the museum, 52 Power St., on Wednesday mornings, Jan. 21 through Feb. 25. Pre-registration is required. For more information, e-mail dsantos@rihs.org or call (401) 273-7507, ext. 60.

The society is also recruiting guides for Summer Walks, which involves leading tours of Benefit Street, College Hill, and the River Walk. Training for Summer Walks will begin in March, but interested individuals may attend the more immediate guide training to become better acquainted with the society’s various programs.

Aid to schools: The University of Rhode Island’s Learning Landscape program is offering financial aid to elementary schools to subsidize winter field trips to the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center so students may explore New England’s plants and wildlife. The program is made possible by a donation from the Master Gardener Foundation of Rhode Island. Special programs will address seed diversity, native birds and mammals, worms and decomposers and ecosystems.

Interested teachers should call (401) 874-7142, e-mail vventurini@mail.uri.edu, or go to www.uri.edu/cels/ceoc. The deadline to apply is Monday.

Preservation Society lecture: The Providence Preservation Society will hold its annual meeting and preservation lecture, featuring Donovan D. Rypkema, author of The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Community Leader’s Guide, on Jan. 22, at 5:30 p.m. at the Providence Public Library, 150 Empire St.

Rypkema is principal of Place Economics, a Washington, D.C.-based real estate and economic development consulting firm specializing in services to public and nonprofit sector clients who are dealing with downtown and neighborhood commercial district revitalization and the reuse of historic structures. Rypkema established Heritage Strategies International, a firm created to provide similar services to clients worldwide. He has worked with communities in 49 states and more than 30 countries. For more information about Rypkema, visit his blog at www.placeeconomics.com/blog.html.

The event is free and open to the public.