Summer Volunteering in my Hometown

Over this summer, I spent most of my time in my home town as I usually do. I am from a very small town in Wisconsin called Bayfield. It's as far north as you can go on the shores of Lake Superior. My dad's side of the family is all from this area. One of my great grandfathers was a commercial fisherman on the lake, and the other was a doctor who ran the tuberculosis sanitorium in town. My family has a very deep history in this town and I have learned a lot about it in my years of growing up both there and in the Chicago area.

CM "House" (2019)

This summer was different than summers in the past. I usually spend summers in Bayfield and in the past few years I have worked at various restaurants while living with my grandparents and spending time with friends and family. This year, my grandfather's health was declining. This meant they couldn't stay for the whole summer. I had spent some time with my family as a family vacation but then went back to Chicago with my grandparents. I then went back up north with my grandparents and my dad in early August. My grandparents both work closely as volunteers with the local historical association. The Bayfield Historical Association. The BHA as it is known around town is a non-profit organization founded in the 1980s. My grandparents have been with the organization since it's founding. There is a museum in town that has different exhibits about the history of Bayfield. These include the history of the islands, fishing, logging, hunting, the great flood and more. Recently, the BHA acquired a model train from a local man named Larry Wrighton. The Wrightons are a local family with deeps history in Bayfield, as well as my names (LaPointe and Moody). Larry Wrighton created a to-scale model railroad of historic Bayfield in the 1920s. He had been working on this project since the early 1990s. He donated it to the BHA in 2016. The BHA took it apart and put it back together in the basement of the museum as an exhibit on historical Bayfield.

My job was to be a docent at the exhibit. I already knew a lot about the history of Bayfield, so I was oriented by a long-time friend Bill Gover. He told me all about the trains and how they were made and assembled. I then had my first shift. I would show visitors the train and the town and tell them about the history of Bayfield. I answered their questions and told them about my family and my own history in Bayfield.

I thought this was a very cool experience I was able to have. I got to learn more about my town's history and got to educate tourists on how special this town really is. I got to make more connections with friends and the management at the BHA. In the end, this was a very fun and meaningful way to spend some of my time over the summer.

CM "Deer" (2019)