Artesia Historical Society docents tour the recently restored Old Fire Station #30. The are Janice Dawson, Delores Evelands, John Lyons (tour guide), Margaret Toy, Pam Crawley, Barbara Applebury, Joanne Witt, Marilyn McGorman, and Wauthera Warnick.
School Docents of the Artesia Historical Museum gathered on June 23 to celebrate the conclusion of the sixth successful year of school tours. The all-volunteer group enjoyed ice cream sundaes, vintage candies, and a tour of the newly renovated fire station as part of their annual appreciation event, which was held at the Artesia Historical Museum. Honored for five or more years of school docent volunteering were Joan Anderson, Society President Barbara Applebury, Veronica Bloomfield, Janice Dawson, Delores Eveland, Mable Low, Marilyn McGorman, and Juathena Plender. Others in attendance included Elaine Burdick, Pam
Crawley and Wauthena Warnick. John Lyons joined the group to serve as tour guide at the fire station.
During the 2009-10 school year, these selfless ladies provided school tours of the Museum to over 700 children and their chaperones, from 21 public and private schools in the Artesia-Cerritos–Lakewood area. The tour is free to all schools, and bus scholarships are available to qualifying classes.
As part of their annual gathering, the school docents reviewed the successes of the past year, discussed suggestions for the coming year, and enjoyed relaying stories of the children’s responses. When asked why they continue to volunteer year after year, a number of docents replied “It’s fun!” As one docent commented, “The children have so much fun, just playing something as simple as croquet! “
The goal of the group is to provide an enjoyable and educational “step back” into local history for elementary age children. The content of the tour is structured to support the state of California academic content standards for third grade social studies and can be adapted for other elementary grade levels. Typically, docents volunteer approximately two hours at a time, one or two days a month, October through June. Docent training is available throughout the school year, and everyone interested in joining this highly successful group is invited to call Elaine Burdick at 562-860-8435.
The school tours function as an educational outreach program of the Artesia Historical Society, with an educational contribution from HSBC (Artesia Branch). The bus scholarship continues to be funded with “seed” money provided by the Artesia-Cerritos Women’s Club supplemented with individual contributions. “We thank these essential supporters for their help in continuing this unique program for school children of our area,” said Society President Barbara Applebury.
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