A Variety of Activities

August 02, 2013 Posted by: Sophie Leiter

As our 4th week of the internship comes to a close I finally feel like I really have my feet under me. We started off the week by helping Ben and Andy run an educational program for a local camp. The REC center kids came to dissect owl pellets. After a late start we managed to get everyone into the activity. The kids were noisy and hard to control, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves and hopefully they all learned something. After dealing with 36 balls of energy we were rewarded with a tour of the Belvedere fallout shelter by Jim. Our tour was only 11 people but the shelter, built for 45, seemed cramped and uncomfortable.  The tour only lasted ½ an hour but I was glad to be out in the fresh air when we were done.

Wednesday we got to see a presentation on forestry with the VYCC kids. We learned all about the basic principles of forestry and how they were being practiced in our park. We then spent the afternoon learning about the King Farm and helping out Kat in the community garden. We had an interesting discussion about the park absorbing the King Farm and all the possibilities for its use with the park.

Thursday we went back to St Gaudens and helped sort their recycling. We then checked on their salamander monitoring stations and got a sneak peek at an upcoming exhibit on the battle at Fort Wagner. Friday was disgustingly hot. No one had much energy, including the visitors. After roving in the morning, getting bitten by mosquitos, stung by a bee, and sweating like nobody's business, I was glad for a break. However, I was in the mansion next which was brutally hot. So much so, that I had to let a few people out as they couldn't take the heat inside anymore. After a few very long hours in the Mansion I went down to the Billings Farm desk and enjoyed a quiet afternoon reading as very few people were keen to visit the farm in this heat. Sunday we did a little interpretive training with Scott and as a reward, he baked us apple pie. Scott seems to bake a lot and I'm not complaining. I went down to the Village Green and sat in the Chamber Booth for a few hours, again spending most of my time reading. In the afternoon I started to work on a project I'm helping John Gilbert with. We're supposed to be comparing our emissions reports from 2006.