![]() Wagner wanted a change after a career at Lockheed Martin “staring at a computer screen all day” and was looking for something “where there was absolutely no tech involved.” (Though the Woodside Store has wi-fi, he abstains while on museum duty.) “People don’t come in here if they’re in a bad mood.” He finds being a docent a pleasant way to volunteer. “So here I am 30 odd years later,” Kelly says. Now it’s down to one for a weekend.”Ī solo volunteer can’t leave the general store unattended to open up the blacksmith shop, which gives visitors less to see, Kelly adds.įormerly a water department supervisor for the City of Burlingame, his entrée to volunteering came when his research about a San Francisco ancestor brought him to the history museum. Then it got down to two docents per weekend. “When we first started here it was not uncommon for us to have maybe three docents on a weekend,” says Wagner, “ which was great because if one of them went on vacation, then you’d still have at least two. All three enjoy serving as docents-greeting visitors and explaining about the store’s history-and wish more people would join them. Kathy Klebe of Redwood City, who is also president of the Historic Union Cemetery Association, covers another Sunday. Each takes one shift a month (noon to 4 p.m.), and when there’s a fifth Sunday, they split it. Jim Kelly of San Mateo and Jim Wagner of Foster City have been volunteering there for decades. A couple of others fill in when they are able to or help at special events, according to Blair. More are needed, but the shortfall is especially acute at the Woodside Store, where three retirees are largely holding the fort. The historic site has an interpretive center in addition to the two-story adobe, so twice as many people are needed, says Blair, who picked up some new volunteers after an orientation in October. Sanchez Adobe is open weekdays but uses volunteers both Saturdays and Sundays. Docents are often seniors or retirees, who are also two years older than when the pandemic arrived. Some have moved from the area, and others are dealing with illness. Some, says Blair, are now taking care of grandchildren. Some volunteers are still uncomfortable being around crowds, even wearing masks. She only has one volunteer docent for the museum tours. “Currently, our gallery numbers are much smaller,” Blair says. Pre-pandemic, Blair says, she could call on 12 to 14 gallery monitors on a big event day, plus five docents leading tours. Some of the docents at the history museum conduct adult tours, but others help with visits of school children, from grades 1 to 4. This story appeared in the June edition of Climate Magazine.Ĭoming off of two years of Covid and prolonged closures of all three locations, the association needs to rebuild the ranks of both docents and the gallery monitors (the monitors don’t lead tours but can help direct visitors between galleries or toward interactive exhibits). By volunteering, the docents and “gallery monitors” who take other weekend slots or help at big events expand the museum’s staffing capabilities. (An adobe on private property is older.) Association employees cover most of the hours on weekdays and weekends when the three locations are open. My staff is wonderful but it brings a new dimension to have the volunteers interpreting the site one day a week as well.”The association operates the history museum in downtown Redwood City plus two sites-the Gold Rush-era Woodside Store at 3300 Tripp Road and the Sanchez Adobe in Pacifica, the county’s second oldest building, dating from 1786. “I can do that,” she says, but the volunteers bring their own interest and knowledge of local history, enthusiasm-and even friends to visit. But for that fourth Sunday? Blair, who is the San Mateo County Historical Association’s deputy director, doesn’t have another regular volunteer to plug into that vacant date, which means she has to deploy paid staff. Three reliable volunteers show up to open the rustic museum site for their docent shifts and close up after the last visitors leave. For three Sundays every month, Carmen Blair doesn’t have to worry about who’s minding the Woodside Store.
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