Invitation to Volunteer as Docent

The Wallkill Valley Land Trust (WVLT) invites you to volunteer for its Fourth Annual Historic House Tour, Houses and Farms in the Wallkill River Valley: The Changing Face of Agriculture in Gardiner and Shawangunk, on Saturday, May 31st, 2014. The tour focuses on some of the area’s finest private houses and their scenic farm complexes, as well as several nineteenth-century industrial sites and neoclassic public buildings, illustrating the evolution of regional architecture from the mid-eighteenth century to the present. Five properties are on the National Register of Historic Places. Featured are important examples of the Dutch-style stone house and barn, the Federal-style in stone and clapboard, a Greek Revival clapboard, early twentieth-century stone houses reimagined in the Federal style and a green, solar-powered contemporary house fashioned from an 1850s barn structure.

 As a volunteer, you will join a small team of docents for one shift at one of the locations on the tour. Docents monitor and safeguard the homes on the tour, direct traffic flow, enforce rules, and share their knowledge of their assigned home’s history and architectural features, thereby enhancing the tour’s reputation as an interesting, enjoyable and smoothly run event. As a thank you for your service, volunteers receive one free ticket to the tour and the reception following.

 Details:

bulletMid-May: Pre-tour early evening orientation at assigned house with house captain two weeks prior to tour, at which time docents will have a chance to tour the house, ask questions and receive printed information on its history and architecture
bulletSunday, May 31: Docents are to arrive at the house 15 minutes in advance of shift.
First Shift:       11:00 – 1:45 (arrive 10:45)
Second Shift:     1:45 - 4:30 (arrive 1:30)
Reception begins: 4:30 at a private home on the tour

Want to participate? 

bulletIf you have access to the Internet, please email Jose Moreno-Lacalle, Docent Chair, at Josemml09@gmail.com with your name, mailing address, phone numbers (cell and home) and an email address, if applicable.
bulletIf you don’t have Internet access, please call Jose at 845-255-6133
bulletIf you have a shift preference or want to work with a friend, please also indicate this in your message

Please respond by no later than April 15th. We will contact you with further information soon after registering.

We hope you will join us in supporting this important endeavor and look forward to hearing from you.