Hearthside - The House That Love Built

TRAINING FOR HISTORIC SITE INTERPRETION HELD AT HEARTHSIDE

Following four intensive days and 32 hours of training at Hearthside, a group of 15 participants met the requirements needed to officially become Certified Interpretive Guides. On May 12, 2006, as the last of the group were about to give their final presentations, Concord, Massachusetts-based trainer Sarah Blodgett said that each of the participants “exceeded expectations.” Most of the ten training session Ms. Blodgett has conducted in the past have been for staff-based sites. In this case, the majority of trainees were volunteers, all from sites in the John H. Chafee Blackstone River Valley National Heritage Corridor, who put in a full day and then returned home with more work to prepare for the next day. “This has been my favorite group ever,” she offered. “There is so much spirit, the volunteers are incredibly enthusiastic and dedicated and they have all had to ‘stretch’ to make this work for them. But they have all been very supportive of each other.”

The newly-trained guides from Lincoln include volunteers John and Fran Scanlon from Hearthside and the Great Road Historic District, Pat Choinere from the Valentine Whitman House, and Julia Grassini from the Wilbur Kelly House Museum.

National Park Service Ranger Suzanne Buchanan coordinated a grant through Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management offering the training to volunteers who were already active as Volunteers in Parks through a national program. The newly Certified Interpretive Guides will be going a step further to assist sites throughout the bi-state National Heritage Corridor as they deal with more visitors inquiring into the long and varied history of the Birthplace of America’s Industrial Revolution. Blodgett said that the goal of each guide is ultimately to “encourage visitors to be community stewards of the site they are visiting” and it looks like they are well on their way to doing just that!

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Group in front of Hearthside

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