FORT TICNDEROGA
From the Press-Republican
By Lohr McKinstry Staff Writer
A Program that works

Using a pitchfork, Nora Feehan loaded a wheelbarrow full of mulch just outside Fort Ticonderoga's King's Garden.
Then she loaded another and another, as a line of other teenagers waited with more wheelbarrows.
Hard work. But it's work the 17 year-old Oreland, PA, high school junior was happy to do.
Feehan is one of a team of a dozen 9th through 11th grade students who've been in Ticonderoga for two weeks courtesy of non-profit Landmark Volunteers of Sheffield, Mass.
"I like it," she said. "I've always liked history, so coming to Fort Ticonderoga was great. We've been doing history-related things."

PAY TO PARTICIPATE
The first day they were there, the fort put them to work handling parking for its annual Grand Encampment of the French and Indian War.
"They're highly motivated," fort Director of Interpretation and Education Richard Strum said. "It's a good resume builder for college applications."
The students pay Landmark to participate, he said, but sites like Fort Ticonderoga are not charged.
"Landmark approached Fort Ticonderoga, looking for new places. We're hopeful they'll be back next year."
This is Feehan's last year as a Landmark volunteer. Next year, she'll go off to college.
"I'll keep in touch with the people I met in the program," she said. "I've made a lot of new friends."
She already volunteers at the senior center near her home.
"My parents said I wasn't doing enough over the summer, though. So, I decided to do this."

COMMUNITY SUPPORT
The volunteers and their adult leader are staying at the State Armory in Ticonderoga, which the town owns.
"We're sleeping in the gym on sleeping bags," Feehan said. "There's a kitchen, and we prepare our own meals." The fort provides lunch for the volunteers, Strum said, and many local restaurants have donated food for them.
One of the fort's trustees held a barbecue for them at his summer camp in Hague, and the fort's staff took them on a canoe trip down the LaChute River.
"We've tried to integrate them into the community," Strum said. "On their last day, they'll get to fire an 18th century musket and go on a ghost walk of the fort.

NATIONWIDE PROGRAM
Thomas Joyce, a teacher, is the adult leader with the volunteer group. "Landmark has 60 sites all over the country," he said. "They're divided into social services, educational, environmental and historical. A group goes to a site for two weeks."
The kids can choose the location they want to go to-everything from repairing fences on a ranch in Colorado to maintaining trails at the Calvin Coolidge Historic Site in Vermont.
"Ticonderoga has been very welcoming," Joyce said. "We worked with the town (highway) crew to clean up the park after the fireworks on the Fourth of July.
"I've liked that we haven't been doing the same thing every day."
At the fort, they're planting and spreading mulch in the King's Garden.
"We're doing a lot of mulch-spreading-90 cubic yards so far," Joyce said.
"We planted 1,000 gladiola bulbs, 300 corn plants, squash and pumpkins. We've been weeding in the Children's Garden and the Indian Garden."
Fort Curator of Landscape Katie Elzer Peters said she looks forward to the volunteers' return next season. "Oh, yeah, we definitely want Landmark to come back. We couldn't have done some of our projects without them." "I think they're learning how much work goes into running a museum."
This is Landmark's first year at Fort Ticonderoga, and it's worked out really well, Joyce said. "This had been a great benefit to the kids. They're getting a work ethic. It's a great invitation to do it in the future."

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