• Boott Cotton Mills Museum with Trolley

    Lowell

    National Historical Park Massachusetts

Spindle City Corps

The Youth Theater Program Team:
Members of the Youth Theater team worked closely with members of the interpretive district at LNHP to present specialized programming to park visitors in the park and in the downtown area. They research and develop historical characters that they portray. Performers wear 19th-century costumes as they present third person formal and informal interpretation to a variety of visitors in a variety of venues.

Maintenance Teams:
Maintenance team members, dressed in the recognizable goldenrod t-shirts, painted fences along Dutton Street, cut weeds, removed brush, washed windows, and mulched sites throughout LNHP. They filled five hundred sand bags and assisted with set up for the Lowell Folk Festival. The teams participated in the USDA healthy summer lunch program.

Highlights:

Community Teamwork, Inc. Day

All SCC members had a role in the annual CTI Day. 125 children in CTI day programs were invited to spend a day at LNHP. They were divided into five groups of 25 children and each group participated in five different activity stations and were guided to the sites by the SCC maintenance team members. The children visited the LNHP Boott Cotton Mills Museum, traveled by LNHP trolley car between sites, attended workshops including crafts, Youth Theater acting and Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm wild animals with Mass Audubon staff assisted by maintenance team members. All children and Corps members ate lunch together.

West Meadows Greenway/Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust

SCC members assisted Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust staff with moving brush piles to establish new trails and installing fencing to restrict ATV traffic on the property. They collected and entered information about plants and animals in a database.

Lowell Folk Festival

SCC provided an integral base of volunteers. LNHP maintenance and interpretive staff depend on the assistance from SCC members to set up and break down festival sites. SCC members volunteered to work shifts on Saturday and Sunday of the Lowell Folk Festival assisting Lowell NHP interpretive staff with setting up tents, tables, and chairs used in the festival.

The Spalding House/Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust

SCC members assisted Brian Cutler, Lowell Parks and Conservation Trust, with trimming the hedges edging the property, removing the cuttings, cutting the weeds in the back yard, clearing trash and painting the fence. Brian provided a tour of the Spalding House.


Field Trips:

Outward Bound, Thompson Island

All SCC members attended the field trip at the island. Teams participated in Outward Bound "challenge by choice" team-building activities on ropes courses. SCC members supported one another. Attendees included young people from other youth programs.

Cardigan Lodge, White Mountains

The teams traveled to Cardigan Lodge in the White Mountains of MH for an overnight trip including leadership activities, and a hike to the summit of Mt. Cardigan. The trip was supported through the Appalachian Mountain Club Youth Opportunities Program Lowell Lawrence Summit Project.

Harold Parker State Forest Camping and Canoeing

The youth also participated in a YOP sponsored overnight canoeing and camping trip at Harold Parker State Forest in Andover, NH.

Spindle City Corps Graduation

All SCC members received certificates, a year book and a copy of the slide program. All members received awards that highlighted their special skills or talents.


Youth Summit Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Massachusetts

All SCC members had the chance to see what members of other youth groups in Massachusetts accomplished over the summer. Attendees included 130 youth from the SCC groups including Youth Theater Program, and LNHP Maintenance teams, Groundwork Lawrence Green Team, Olmsted Center Landscape Preservation Branching Out, Boston Harbor Island Ambassadors, Boston Harbor Islands -Thompson Island Green Corps, Mass Area Parks Student Career Intake Program and Boston African American National Historical Site Trailblazers.

 
Community Teamwork and City Corps Logos

Working in partnership with Community Teamwork, Inc. (CTI) and Lowell National Historical Park (LNHP) offer several programs under the Spindle City Corps (SCC) umbrella with the guiding principles of service, diversity and education. The Spindle City Corps, founded in 1994, provides opportunities for Lowell youth to contribute to and take pride in their city.

 

Trades Skills Program Team:
Vocational students from the Greater Lowell Regional Vocational Technical High School in a job skills training program work on historic preservation projects in the park to develop skilled trades experience.These students received on-the-job work experience to further develop and practice their chosen career field in areas of carpentry, painting, electrical, HVAC and mechanics.The students work alongside NPS skilled maintenance staff and receive additional training and development opportunities through exposure to NPS historic preservation and cultural resource management practices.

 

Year Round Leadership Team:
The Year Round Spindle City Corps program builds upon the success of Lowell's current and long term partnership with Community Teamwork, Inc. by supporting a year round program uniting young people to provide community service, leadership training, and stewardship development. It encourages, prepares, and challenges young people from diverse backgrounds to address environmental and social issues in their community and introduces them to possible conservation-related career fields.

 
 

Did You Know?

Francis Gate/Guard Locks, Lowell, MA

There are 5.6 miles of canals at Lowell National Historical Park. The canals channeled the Merrimack River's 32 foot drop to Lowell's mills providing power for the mill machinery.