VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT
York & Kitty Glass
June, July & August
Ever wonder how all that lovely artwork the artists bring in for a new show gets melded into a display that looks as though it was just meant to be that way?
York and Kitty Glass are very active members of the Gallery Committee, and both serve in various ways to support the gallery’s mission. They are regulars on the team that works with Gallery Director Jim Thomas to set up new exhibits every six weeks or so. In fact, they started doing that work when Don Braus was still managing the gallery in the late 1990s.
Set up days begin early in chaos, and end late with a magically-organized new exhibit. Little-by-little the team, under Jim’s direction, decides where this picture should hang and how these pottery items should be displayed until everything is in place. York works primarily on hanging pictures, while Kitty arranges displays of jewelry, pottery and most anything else that doesn’t hang on a wall. Others are helping, of course, and now that we have doubled the gallery space, the team has been expanded somewhat.
Both York and Kitty are artists who exhibit regularly in the Center Gallery. Kitty works primarily in stained glass, and specializes in the stained glass lamps that grace the gallery. York paints in watercolor and acrylic − usually landscapes, but also abstracts. Kitty and York are both natives of Atlanta and lived there until they moved to Gainesville in 1998. York had extensive training in art and design beginning as a child when he took classes at the High Museum. Later he gravitated to a career in medical equipment sales. He worked in nuclear medicine when the field was just beginning. Kitty worked for an insurance company and a credit reporting company. Along the way, she took some classes in stained glass art and found her artistic niche.
York and Kitty still live in the Gainesville area, but say that when they leave their house, their car just tends to come this way. We’re glad it does. Thanks, York and Kitty, for all you do.
Simply Breakfast Volunteers
April & May
This month we’re doing something a little different – recognizing the group of people who have prepared our Simply Breakfast meals for the last several years. The group includes Paul Brown, Jack and Tracy Barton, Elizabeth Crittenden and Penn White, Chris Geidel, Marilyn Gwen, Lark and Tom Hutto, and Richard and Jimmie Tinius. They’ve been an amazingly cohesive group, with all but Marilyn and Paul having started with the original Simply Breakfast five years ago. They say they like each other and enjoy working together.
In February 2004 the SNCA Board of Directors was looking for additional fundraising ideas. Jimmie Tinius, who was then on the board, was already working with the Simple Suppers and thought perhaps a monthly breakfast would be appealing to members. All nine people who prepared the first breakfast are still doing it! That’s remarkable in the world of volunteer efforts.
Richard and Jimmie do the shopping. They also set up the dining room and prepare the big coffee pots on timers on Friday evening. Saturday morning breakfast preparations start at 7:00 a.m. with service beginning at 8:00 a.m. They serve until 10:30 a.m., and cleanup is usually finished by 11:30 a.m. Of course, the machine wasn’t always this well-oiled. It took quite a bit of experience to get the routine perfected. And every breakfast is an adventure, because they never know how many people will turn out. Jimmie says they average serving 65 to 70 people, but one time they had 150 people. So if you arrive for a late breakfast sometime and find they have run out of something, please understand. They’ve managed to keep the prices the same since starting in early 2004.
Chris says he cooked lots of breakfasts with the Boy Scouts and likes doing it. He said they enjoy working together, and it’s fun to talk with the people who come to have breakfast and to socialize. Paul Brown says he’s one for getting up and out in the morning and he loves sausage. Jack likes to cook pancakes. He and Tracy fight over that duty. Elizabeth has the important job of batter maker. Lark is usually manning the beverage table, and Marilyn is helping wherever she’s needed. Tom and Penn collect the money. And Richard, bless his heart, knows every quirk of the restaurant-style dishwasher. This community breakfast is no paper plate event!
The next time you come for Simply Breakfast, please say a special thanks to your volunteer breakfast crew.
Caroline Curran
February & March
Caroline Curran and her husband, Bob, joined SNCA in 2001, before they moved here from the Charleston area in 2002. They had been visiting Sautee and knew they wanted to be a part of the community association. Caroline volunteered at the main reception desk occasionally as a substitute, but didn’t really find her niche until the Folk Pottery Museum opened. She said when she started hearing about a folk pottery museum she pictured a dark, dusty room with pots scattered around. When she saw the building going up, she knew it was going to be something very different. She took the volunteer training prior to the museum opening, and was enthralled by what she saw and learned.
Caroline says the biggest volunteer benefit for her is dealing with the visitors who are really interested and want to learn. She likes for visitors to ask her questions. If she can answer a question, that’s fun; if she can’t, she knows there’s something she needs to learn. Another real pleasure is the occasional visitor who is very knowledgeable – perhaps a collector – who can tell her things she hasn’t learned yet.
Caroline enjoys using Linda Anderson’s wonderful painting in the museum to point out to visitors various aspects of the early potters’ work and lives. At the same time, she tries to be sensitive to those visitors who just want to go through the museum, taking a more casual look. She says once in a while she has to pull back, when she realizes she’s trying to tell visitors more than they really want to know. She enjoys encouraging people to purchase an authentic folk pottery item from the museum, knowing that sales are important to small museums. Caroline encourages anyone who has an interest in satisfying museum work to become a regular or substitute volunteer.
Professionally, Caroline’s career was in counseling, social work and high school teaching. She and Bob spend as much time as possible with their three grandchildren. She and her granddaughter, Bess, got a lap loom for Christmas, and are enjoying learning some beginning weaving skills. Caroline says it’s hard for her Charleston friends to understand what she finds so stimulating here, but like so many of us, Caroline and Bob find the area an amazingl |
