For 1,232 volunteered labor hours, the Swan’s Island Educational Society worked closely with 13 student volunteers and their chaperone, focusing on moving historic items out of the sagging Seaside Hall.
For two weeks, the volunteers, hailing from up and down the East Coast of the United States and fueled by sugary snacks provided by island volunteers, cleaned, packed, inventoried, and lugged 1,048 items contained in the Seaside Hall to storage in the Oddfellows Hall and the Swan’s Island Library.
The students, participating in Landmark Volunteers, a Sheffield, MA nonprofit that sends students to work on volunteer projects across the country, collaborated with islanders to made the whole process an ode to volunteerism.
From the moment the volunteers first stepped on the island on June 24, island volunteers welcomed the guests with treats and goodies. Sheila Smith, proprietor of the Island Bake Shoppe, started off the parade of food by donating six pizzas for the volunteers’ first dinner on Swan’s Island and generously dropped off sacks of sticky buns, rolls, doughnuts and other treats for the students a later in their stay.
When Zainab, a volunteer from Massachusetts, celebrated a birthday, Marion Stinson made an impromptu birthday cake, complete with 15 candles. Other people brought muffins, nuts, granola, and other munchies to keep the teenagers fueled in their arduous task.
Nadia, a volunteer from New York City, noted one day, “It’s becoming a joke. We must be known as the kids who eat all the time.”
When the volunteers left, they made a large card to thank those who fed them for two weeks, made out to the “Lovely Snack People.”
And the generosity of the islanders was matched by the work of the Landmark Volunteers. Aside from the voluminous number of hours they dedicated to the Seaside Hall project, the volunteers also volunteered for the Garden Club, Recreation Committee, School, and Odd Fellows. They added over 2,000 volumes to the Swan’s Island and Frenchboro Libraries’ combined catalog and went through hundreds of discarded books, selling over 80 on Book Prospector.com, and setting aside the rest for the Swan’s Island Library Bazaar held on Aug. 2. The Volunteers made dozens of trips to the dump, sorting out metals, wood and recyclables, and combed miles of trails and roads on the island for debris while working with the Garden Club on a “trash pick” day. Donna Wiegle of the Garden Club exclaimed that the Educational Society was lucky to work with such “a nice group of young people.”
The students also had the daunting task of cleaning out the Oddfellows Hall kitchen, where a yellow warning tape reads, “Danger – Men Cooking.” The kids tackled the building with drive, especially George from New York, who washed every dish in the kitchen. The Oddfellows themselves were a little apprehensive about what to expect out of the cleaning job. “We probably won’t be able to find anything,” said Dale Stockbridge. But while there were a few things out of place, the reaction to the kitchen and the cleanliness of the Oddfellows Hall was exuberant and, the Oddfellows invited the students to Sunday morning breakfast as to show their appreciation. “It’s the least we can do,” said Gary Turner.
However, the biggest project was removing and inventorying the items from the Seaside Hall. It was difficult at times. Elise from New Jersey and Cary from Maryland, charged with packing up the tools, were unsure of the uses of many of their items, so on their inventory sheets, they marked instead the size and makeup of the item. Erika from New Jersey and Mairead from Boston were in charge of the “store” section of the museum, which contained so many bottles that they inventoried the items for three days. After Ed Schwabe helped move all the items out with his box truck, Will Conklin, the Landmark Team Leader, said that it felt great to see that all the items had finally been removed.
At the end of their stay, Candis Joyce, Director of the Swan’s Island Educational Society asked each student to explain their favorite and least favorite parts of their experience. Ryan from New Jersey had no qualms about his least favorite part: “cataloging,” he stated firmly But, like most, he was proud of the work he had done. Most of the students had similar answers for their favorite part: meeting nice new people, and least favorite part: getting poured on in the middle of a hike during their free time. But when Nadia answered the question about her least favorite time on Swan’s Island and working with the other volunteers said, “There was no worst part.” And the Swan’s Island Educational Society would have to agree. q