Small Staff and Volunteers
Turkey Run is staffed by a small paid professional staff, supplemented by volunteers (mostly pre-teens and teenagers called apprentices) who demonstrate 1771 farm life, including field work, crafts, cooking, and other special activities. Staff (including volunteers) use "first person" to demonstrate living history.
The farm has also cooperated with Fairfax County in providing work-release parolees with court-required employment. And on a 1771 farm, this means labor.
The highlight of the year is the Market Fair, held the third weekends of May, July, and October. The Market Fair is enhanced by the participation of a cadre of long-time volunteers who man the stands, including the blacksmith, the cabinet maker, millinery, plants, toys, scriptorium, puppet theatre and, most importantly, the tavern. The importance of the tavern in Colonial life is captured on the sign displayed therein: "Beer is proof that God loves us, and wants us to be happy. —Benjamin Franklin."
Many of the participants are members of American Revolutionary War re-enactor groups and appear at other Colonial historical events. The gathering and threshing of wheat and the preparation of the tobacco crop are annual events. A Colonial Wassail, including the blessing of the orchard, is the final event of the season, in mid-December.
Read more about this topic: Claude Moore Colonial Farm
Famous quotes containing the words small, staff and/or volunteers:
“The small sleek one wants to stop,
docile to the imploring soul of the trashbasket,
but the young tall curly one
wants to walk on; the glistening sidewalk
entices him to arcane happenings.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)
“... all my letters are read. I like that. I usually put something in there that I would like the staff to see. If some of the staff are lazy and choose not to read the mail, I usually write on the envelope “Legal Mail.” This way it will surely be read. It’s important that we educate everybody as we go along.”
—Jean Gump, U.S. pacifist. As quoted in The Great Divide, book 2, section 10, by Studs Terkel (1988)
“Friendship is but another name for an alliance with the follies and the misfortunes of others. Our own share of miseries is sufficient: why enter then as volunteers into those of another?”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)