PHMC Volunteers of the Year for 2022 Part 3

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Douglas Lehnen
Seated man with full gray beard and mustache wearing glasses, brown tricorn hat, undyed linen waistcoat and coat and blue linen breeches.
Doug began volunteering at Pennsbury in February of 2020. Throughout the spring and summer, he was at the site 3 to 5 days a week assisting our maintenance staff with mowing grass. Once the leaves started to fall, he was back on the mower with a leaf bagger keeping the site pristine. Doug also began working with the Role Players to help breathe life into characters like Phineas Pemberton and Doctor Wynne, helping us to tell a broader story and allowing visitors to see William Penn and Pennsbury Manor from different perspectives. In the spring of 2022 Doug worked with the education staff to develop a new school activity focusing on the Welcome, the ship that first brought William Penn and early Quaker settlers to Pennsylvania. He researched the dimensions of the ship and created a full-size layout to give students a sense for how much room they would have had on the ship. Doug also created carved pumpkin displays for Tricks and Treats as well as a 20-foot mega light tree for Holly Nights. Doug has quickly become an invaluable part of operations at Pennsbury Manor, and we are grateful for his support and dedication.

Janifer and John Halter
Woman in red, blue and white plaid shirt, red skirt and white apron and man in blue pants with suspenders, white collarless shirt and blue hat with wide brim. The woman is pouring coffee from an enamelware pot into a tin cup held by the man. They are standing in front of a rough wooden building with a sign that says "Kitchen."
Janifer and John began regular volunteer service with the museum in 2018. They enjoy spending time outdoors and have developed expertise in primitive cooking and historic foodways. One of the first things they did to help the museum was to clean, research, and then demonstrate the historic cook stove in the lumber camp kitchen. John and Jan conduct frequent cooking demonstrations using historically appropriate recipes and techniques. They dress the part of a woodhick cook and cookee (cook’s assistant) and have developed and administered numerous interpretive programs about food in Pennsylvania lumber camps, making our events and programs more vibrant. In addition to serving on the PALMA board of directors, the Halters actively participate in numerous events and programs at the museum, including Winter in the Lumber Camp, the Spring and Fall Antique Shows, Bark Peelers’ Festival, History Camp, Spooky Lantern Tours, Santa in the Shay, and school and scout tours. They are friendly and engaging with museum visitors, and their “can-do” attitude inspires other volunteers and staff to do their best work. We thank them for their service and look forward to many more years of working together.

Simon Cressman
A young man with dark hair wearing a white collarless shirt and tan pants stands in front of display of two large military vehicles.
Simon has played a critical role as a dedicated youth volunteer at the museum, most recently working with site staff in collections, education, and administration. He has dedicated countless hours before and after school to the site. When not assisting the curator in caring for collections and collection storage spaces, he spent a great deal of time completing a comprehensive inventory of nearly 800 books currently in long-term storage. The project entailed inventorying each shelf and box in the storage facility and identifying books belonging to the permanent collection of the site. He then worked with the curator to appropriately document and care for those books. Simon also ensured programming spaces such as the gallery, lobby, and theater were ready to welcome guests. Without his help, critical projects would not have been completed, and the site could not have remained at a state of readiness to welcome guests. We thank Simon for his hard work and support for the museum.

Stephen Jacobs
A man with a mustache and glasses wearing jeans and blue denim shirt with Railroad Museum logo sits in front of a computer. He is surrounded by shelves of archival boxes.
Stephen joined the volunteer program at the museum in 2018. Since then, he has been instrumental in the blueprint scanning program, meticulously working to clean up and restore these priceless items. He also researched the specialty scanners and software needed to accomplish this goal. His efforts have been particularly helpful to staff in the Restoration Shop, where blueprints can now be viewed on a large screen while work is in progress. Stephen's help in acquiring a large format printer has also allowed the museum to make copies of blueprints share with researchers and historical groups or to give to welders and contractors for easier fabrication of parts. Stephen has put in hours of tedious work cleaning up images in the collection, often needing to spend upwards of 40 hours on just one image; the before-and-after results are incredible. In the last fiscal year, Stephen logged the highest number of hours contributed by a volunteer, coming in with 766.25 hours of service. One of his major projects was creating a new database of Vulcan shop technical drawings. We look forward to Stephen’s continued contributions in the coming years and thank him for his invaluable support of our mission.

Ron Hillegas
A man wearing jeans, work boots, a brown leather jacket, and a camo cap stands next to a stone house connecting an HVAC system.
Ron is a retired certified electrician and a board member of the Historical and Genealogical Society of Somerset County. During the past year, he used his expertise to convert dozens of fluorescent light fixtures to LED and reworked old outdated light fixtures in the Maintenance Garage and Haupt Education Center. He also designed and installed a mini-split HVAC system for a section of the Haupt Education Center, providing heat and air conditioning within that structure. Ron evaluated temporary electrical systems used by 12 non-profit food vendors at our annual Mountain Craft Days festival, then reworked old wiring and electrical boxes to better meet their needs and improve safety. He also used his mobile lift to trim tree branches overhanging roadways. Ron's volunteer efforts saved thousands of dollars in professional electrical work at properties owned by HGSSC. He is quick to volunteer for various projects and is a valuable asset to the site and the Board. We thank Ron for his dedication and willingness to put his expertise to good use to benefit our programs and operations.

Alice Herncane
A woman with short gray hair wearing dark pants, a white turtleneck with small green Christmas trees on it, and a white sweater stands against a marble wall in Memorial Hall. A metal gate with small metal sculptures representing historical figures is to her right.
After attending many Gallery Walks in downtown Harrisburg, Alice applied to become a volunteer at museum because she had an interest in the arts and history. She began her service in 2012 volunteering for the museum's Stop and Learn program. Each week, she came in to run the Mastodon cart on the third-floor gallery for school groups. In 2014, Alice became a docent for the Alexander Wilson exhibit, which gave her the opportunity to share her passion for ornithology. She enjoyed volunteering inside the exhibit on Sunday afternoons while interacting with visitors. Alice also assists with the museum’s annual holiday decorations, working with other volunteers to decorate the Christmas tree in the main lobby. Currently, Alice is a docent for the Great Horned Owl Stop and Learn cart. She volunteers on busy school days to open the cart and share hands-on material with the students. She continues to be a big supporter of Gallery Walk and Art of The State, as she frequently attends the artists conversations to meet the featured artists. We are grateful to Alice for her continued service and dedication to the museum’s visitors.