COOPERSTOWN, FARMERS’ Museum/FENIMORE Art Museum
The CoopersTown Crier
By Casey Campbell
Volunteers helping out at Fenimore, Farmers’ Museum Blue

Of the estimated 20,000 visitors expected in the area for this weekend’s festivities, at least 13 of them are not here for baseball. Twelve 16 and 17-year-olds from across the nation and an adult team leader are in the middle of a two-week summer program organized by Landmark Volunteers designed to help maintain the grounds at the Farmers’ Museum and Fenimore Art Museum.

“To a person, they have all proved to be exemplary and certainly we benefit from their hard work,” said Nancy Karaman, volunteer administrator with the New York State Historical Society.

Karaman said the group arrived Sunday and spent the first few days building fences, constructing lean-tos and helping maintain the grounds of the Farmers’ Museum. She said they will spend several days trailblazing and helping maintain and mark the historical trails created by past Landmark Volunteer teams. They also will spend a day fixing up Pathfinder Lodge on Otsego Lake, where the team is staying for the duration, she said.

“They came in ready to do a lot of hard work,” she said Tuesday.

Karaman said Landmark teams have been coming for at least six years and fit with the vision shared by the more than 4000 volunteers serving NYSHA during the course of a year.

“We strive to have the museum and community strengthened and advanced by the positive impact of voluntary action,” she said. “Once they see what they’ve done they realize how important volunteering is to the nation and to the world.”

According to the organization’s website, Landmark Volunteers offer 52 summer service programs at various historic and cultural sites around the country. Their program is based on the belief that “when you do something to improve the world around you, you do something to improve yourself.” At most sites, the work consists of manual labor and requires “responsible, committed high school students who are not afraid to get their hands dirty.”

The 12 teenagers in this year’s group come from various locations around the country, including California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Long Island. Most of the kids said they joined because they thought it would be a positive experience and because their parents or a sibling recommended the program. Some of the kids said Tuesday they were having trouble adjusting to the program so far, specifically citing the early 11 p.m. bedtimes and restriction on cell phone and iPod use. They indicated however that they formed a bond with a calf at the Farmers' Museum whom they dubbed “Moose Stallion” for his voracious eating habits and fierce demeanor.

Team leader Gregg Rosenfeld said the program was “good experience” for the kids, and that they were learning about the 19th century experience through their work at the Farmers’ Museum.

Jennifer Andrews, the marketing and retail sales coordinator for the Clark Sports Center, said the teams went on the center’s new ropes course Tuesday night and had a phenomenal time and really came together as a group. She said that while the kids were having some trouble, adjusting to the program initially, she thinks they were starting to come around by Tuesday night.

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