![]() ![]() We even had a couple of people who were upset because it was too early to start seeing Christmas trees. Some people are very excited about it, and others are confused. It is interesting the reactions people have to Christmas in July. I helped to decorate the lighthouse and I worked our big Christmas in July ornament sale. Over the last couple of days, I have also been helping get ready for Christmas in July. By the end of the day my voice was sore from talking so much, but it was a very good weekend. I love showing the kids how items like our Victrola record player work. I love giving tours and I had a lot of fun because we have been having more families with young kids come to the lighthouse. Because of this, I was in the lighthouse almost full time last weekend. Generally we have two guest keepers, but the keepers who were scheduled were unable to make it to the lighthouse so we had to try to cover tours by ourselves with some help from last minute volunteers. This last week also brought the complication of a week without guest keepers. It was not safe for people to climb up there, let alone have one of our guest keepers stay in the tower for an extended period of time. The top of the tower is enclosed with glass and works like a greenhouse trapping in the heat. In fact, we had to close tours into the tower of the lighthouse because of the heat. After having an abnormally cool beginning to summer, we had several days that were abnormally hot. In my last post I mentioned how amazed I was at how much the weather affects operations at the lighthouse. Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a reply “Merry Christmas in July” The staff of people I work with is great and I have learned a lot about working in a museum. As the realization has started to set in, I am a little sad because I have enjoyed working here. I have about a week left of work at the lighthouse and then my internship will be over. It is an interesting experience, but it is unfortunate that I am learning about this because someone was injured. Because of this injury, I am learning how to fill out the incident reports that we have for the lighthouse and have learned about how cases of injury are handled at sites owned by the State of Michigan. A woman hurt herself while coming down the tower steps. In addition to all of the illnesses, I also had my first experience with someone injuring themselves in the lighthouse. Because of all the illnesses, the staff at the lighthouse has been covering what responsibilities we can, but we have had to close tours early and last weekend we were unable to open the harbor store because we did not have enough people to run it. ![]() Shortly after this, one of my coworkers also became ill. Unfortunately, half way through the week, one of the keepers got sick and had to go home, so we were short a person in the lighthouse again. When the next group of keepers came in, I was relieved thinking that things were finally going to get back to normal. Luckily, one of the former keepers was able to come and help out so we did have one keeper in the lighthouse. The craziness started when a couple of our guest keepers were unable to work at the lighthouse so I ended up helping with tours more than I normally do. The last two weeks at the lighthouse have been somewhat crazy. I can only hope that when I graduate I can find a position somewhere where the coworkers are as welcoming and the work is as enjoyable. I had a great time interning at Tawas Point Lighthouse. I enjoyed trying to figure out how to put up exhibits and plan activities with the items available on hand. For example, the captions for one of the temporary exhibits I assembled were laminated with contact paper donated from a local school. I also learned how to put up a temporary exhibit with very little money. It is so important that on days when the lighthouse is short of staff, lighthouse tours get shut down before the gift shop closes. I was surprised by how much time goes into keeping the gift shop running and how important the income is to the ability to operate the lighthouse. ![]() I learned a lot working at the lighthouse this summer. I also finished my ideas for a history program at the lighthouse. The list is going to be complied into a binder to show what was going on when the lighthouse was built. I completed a list of facts and important events from 1876. During my last week at the lighthouse, I spent my time working at the harbor store and in the gift shop and finishing up paperwork and the projects was working on. My summer at the lighthouse is done and I am now back in Chicago getting ready for the upcoming school year.
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