Class Picture
2008 child volunteers
Last evening at the end of the business day, the Colonial Interpretation Department hosted an informal ice cream and cake thank-you party for the 2008 child volunteer interpreters. Each child, or young person, since some of them aren’t really children anymore thank you very much, received a small gift and lots of praise.
They all did an awesome job this summer, learning the stories of their assigned characters, using 17th-century dialect, participating in special events, teaching visitors both young and old period games and songs, and generally acting like children, which added a priceless atmosphere to the recreated 1627 English Village.
One of my favorite moments happened early in the summer, during the squadron muster on July 3. As the men marched down the street with pikes and/or muskets under the direction of Captain Myles Standish, the two youngest boys fell in behind them carrying sticks shaped like swords. Totally unscripted, just children being children, but you need children around to have that sort of thing happen spontaneously.
Which wouldn’t have happened without Buddy, the veteran interpreter to the left in the class photo. Buddy took on primary responsibility for the child volunteer program, creating training materials and “practice” sessions, coordinating with the parents and the wardrobe department staff, supervising the children on site (with lots of help, support and cooperation from all the rest of the Village staff), and generally mentoring a new generation of first-person interpreters. Buddy not only got ice cream and cake, but he also got thanks and appreciation from the parents, whose children have been enjoying a most excellent summer.
The children will continue to volunteer in the Village for another week, then take a few weeks’ hiatus to establish new school schedules, etc. This will give us time to procure wool coats, mittens and stockings in time for them to rejoin the Village cast in late September, volunteering weekends and holidays.
*Two children are missing from the photo, Ella and Eli. They were awesome, too, but were unavailable for the picture.
Tags: Buddy, child volunteers, stockings
