 |
| Landscaping at the Train Shed. |
year in September, United Way of King County organizes Day of Caring where thousands of
volunteers all take the day off from work and volunteer in their community. United
Way asks non-profit organizations to sponsor projects and then group leaders –
mostly from companies – sign up for projects and organize volunteers to work on
those projects. This year, on September 21, 2012, the Northwest Railway Museum
participated in Day of Caring by sponsoring two groups from Microsoft who
worked on several projects. A third group will come in October from the Marriot
Hotel, who were unable to come on the 21st but still wanted to
participate.
The first project was for a group to go to Snoqualmie Falls to help with ivy
mitigation and brush control. Every year the English ivy that was planted
at the site of the Snoqualmie Falls Hotel in the late 1800s grows robustly
around the trees and vegetation, choking the life out of the native
landscape. The Museum annually works to mitigate the ivy’s impact by
cutting it back. Day of Caring volunteers helped greatly with this
project and also trimmed back some of the brush including non-native holly that
has been starting to impede the visitor experience at the falls.
 |
| Rehabilitating benches for coach 218. |
The second project was to beautify the Northwest Railway Museum Train Shed
Exhibit Building by planting over 200 huckleberries, dogwoods, ferns,
snowberries, cedar trees, sallal and Oregon grape. Volunteers were able to
complete the landscaping around the Train Shed so that it is now returned to
its native beauty.
 |
| Landscaping at the Train Shed. |
washed the walkways, cleaned in the bookstore and swept. Before starting the
Depot cleaning, the same volunteers spent the morning cleaning Coach 1590 for
the arrival of the newly re-upholstered seats. By the end of the day,
Coach 1590 was shiny and had new cushions!
 |
| Staining a fence at the Train Shed. |
Caring volunteers worked on Collections Care rehabilitation projects too.
A group of five people worked throughout the day striping shellac in the Chapel
Car in anticipation of additional installation of interior cladding in the next
week. They also helped disassemble benches that are being restored and
installed in Coach 218 in the next year.
 |
| Stripping shellac in the chapel car. |
told there were over 50 volunteers from Microsoft, plus, to help coordinate the
event, five volunteers from the Museum helped run the speeder (to move
volunteers between work sites) and train set and another who helped supervise
the projects.
The Northwest Railway Museum thanks all of the volunteers who helped out from Microsoft
and from the Northwest Railway Museum. It was a very successful day! If you
have a group that would like to come and volunteer for a day, please feel free
to contact our Volunteer Coordinator Cristy Lake at any time – there is more information on the web site. Volunteering as a
group for the day can be a fun way to serve the community and have an enjoyable
time with friends.
 |
| Rehabilitating benches for coach 218. |
Hiawatha, It's nice to see that volunteerism is alive and well in the North West! Being from East Tennessee…the Volunteer State…charity, volunteering, helping others out…it's a way of life and related stories frequently serve as the lead stories on the local TV news. The train shed is looking good! Take Care, Big Daddy Dave