Lissa Clark and her sons all volunteer their time to help at our special events and are now an integral part of the 2018 Crannog Community. Just like her father who helped build the Crannog roundhouse 20+ years ago, Lissa has found volunteering at the Crannog rewarding, interesting and educational plus, it opens up a whole new world!
Here is Lissa’s experience of volunteering in her own words:
Woke at 4 a.m. today in excited anticipation of another day volunteering at the Crannog! Having done a few this year since we opened for Easter, wire jewellery demos and teaching, even though it sounds the same, each time is different. But always great. Time flies by, meeting so many amazing people and sharing what I am learning. Living, breathing history, or at least, living breathing experimental archaeology! Youngest son all dressed up and raring to go: gear-check; food-check; warm clothes-oh yes indeed …
Arrived to a warm welcome from all the staff working today. It’s great to feel part of a team even though I’m only there once a month. We have learned so much already with my middle son being spoken to about Apprenticeships and the wee one with me today has learned so much that he’s set up his own wee wire jewellery industry. Making enough money to reinvest and being offered skill-sharing and mentoring from two metalsmiths who both admire what the Crannog does too … he’s just turned 11!
Biting wind and unexpected showers didn’t put the visitors off as I ran my “here’s what I can tell you” waffle and we had many people taking time to chat whilst making their own ring or bracelet or necklace, standing shivering but still keen to do and learn. It feels good to share what we can. I am so proud of the fact that I can still retain information and hopefully get that across to our visitors in a fun and interesting way. Each time I learn some new facts about wire production or archaeological finds for fresh approaches to tell our visitors. I also get to paint people’s faces with blue Celtic warrior patterns! I hope to tell Celtic stories soon too, on top of creating a quest for kids at the Autumn event next month.
As a family, we started coming to the Crannog 17 years ago and kept returning as our family grew until we knew we needed more and asked to volunteer to be a bigger part of the exciting work the museum does in a practical way. My dad was involved as a volunteer during the building of ‘the house’ so it seems fitting that we are now onto the third generation taking part … Dad also still loves coming back to see how things are evolving as each year there is more to see and do and now, dogs can come in too!
Guess what … we’ve also had the opportunity to sleep over at the Crannog…twice…wow, that’s not something many folk around today can say!
