Applefest

Preparations

When at Lang Pioneer Village Museum, I got to help them with their Applefest event on October 2nd. This was an all-day affair, where I would help with the set-up and take-down of everything, dress in period clothing, and provide information to visitors. Before the event started, I was given the volunteer manual to read so I knew what to expect while working at the museum. From there, I was also provided with a PDF that had information about the Keene Hotel for me to review so I knew the history of the place, and so I could tell people that information. On the day of the event, I showed up an hour ahead of time to get my costume for the day. I had already given them my clothing sizes ahead of time so they could get the costume out for me. As the first costume was slightly too big on me, I was able to get one that was smaller and still fit the time period of the hotel.

The Event Itself

After I got into costume, that’s when I got the Keene Hotel ready for Applefest. When I figured out where the hotel was, that was where I met the other two people I’d be working with that day. We discussed together who was working in what section of the hotel (either the kitchen for the food and drinks, or the dining room to provide interpretations), and went from there. While waiting for the event to open to the public, I got some water to make the lemonade, and helped figure out where to put the food. As soon as the event opened, we had a small trickle of people come into the hotel at first. Later in the day, when the line was long and we had more people, I had to do mental math to provide change for people, along with giving people their orders. At times, I was in the dining room providing information to people – whether it was their first time at Lang, or they had questions – to help make their wait seem shorter. For the whole day – apart from my lunch break – I was on my feet providing people with their orders and change, and even information. At times, we had run out of food and drinks, and I let my team know before we let the people in line know in case they needed to change their order. At the end of the event, I helped to clean the hotel with one of the volunteers, while the other one counted the change. When I finished cleaning everything, and there was nothing else to do for the hotel, I went to return the costume so it could be used for another event.