National monument volunteers honored

Lindsey Phillips reported to the Historic City Newsroom that the National Park Service recently honored local St. Augustine volunteers for the thousands of hours donated to make our national monuments such educationally rich historical treasures.

Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas National Monuments hosted a dinner to honor almost 200 of the fort’s “Volunteers in Parks” on January 30, 2011.

At the Castillo and Fort Matanzas, the most visible volunteers are those who dress in period clothing and fire the cannons, but our VIPs do so much more. They staff visitor centers, serve as deckhands on the ferries, answer questions, research and keep visitors safe, just to name a few of the duties. During October, 2009 and September, 2010, VIPs gave over 22,000 hours of their time to Castillo and Fort Matanzas, an increase over last year of 2,000 hours.

For the third consecutive year, volunteers, as well as some individuals, received t-shirts, awards for achieving lifetime volunteer hours and other special awards. Interpretive Service Awards, for dedication to the interpretation of the parks’ resources, were presented to Keith Stewart, Kevin Cieslak, Marty Syken and Tom Harris from the Castillo and Allen Hilburn, Chris Clark, Joan Shannon and Veronica Peterson from Fort Matanzas.

The Rookie of the Year award is given to the new VIP with the most hours for the 12 month period. Castillo’s 2010 recipient was Dan Thompson and Fort Matanzas’ was Jim Palmer.

David Shepard and Marilyn Cox received the Site Supervisor’s Award from Castillo and Fort Matanzas, respectively, for exceptional services to the parks.

The VIP of the Year honor is awarded to volunteers who have made notable and exceptional contributions in their service to the forts and our visitors. Castillo’s 2010 VIP of the year was Warren Feldman and Fort Matanzas’ was Richard Shortlidge.

The Superintendent’s Award for high hours and exceptional services was presented to John Higgins.

This past year, a new VIP award was created: The Frank Suddeth Award. Named for a former Ranger and volunteer we sadly lost in January, 2010, this award is given to someone who has shown exceptional dedication of time and personal resources to the parks’ interpretive programs. Mr. Suddeth not only spent lots of time at the Castillo, but he would make hundreds of copies of his artwork to hand out to children. Frank was an institution at the park and he could answer any question about the forts or St. Augustine, his hometown.

The first person to receive this honored award was longtime volunteer John Cipriani. Over his 12+ years at the parks, Mr. Cipriani has taken countless photographs, built many displays, helped with projects and even purchased his own cannon, which he lets us display at the Castillo. A good friend of Mr. Suddeth, John truly carries on Frank’s love of the Castillo and enthusiasm for the city’s history.

The National Park Service just released its Historic Weapons Program Summary report for the past 12 months. The Castillo and Fort Matanzas ranked number one in total demonstrations (1,398), number of visitors served (288,418) but number two to Gettysburg National Military Park in VIP hours. Gettysburg had 24,172 hours and the Castillo and Fort Matanzas had 21,031, however it took Gettysburg 1,517 volunteers to accumulate their hours and we reached ours with only 140 hardcore volunteers. With the upcoming anniversaries of the founding of Florida and the City of St. Augustine’s 450th, we will only see these numbers increasing.

The Historic Weapons Living History programs and the Volunteer in Parks program for the Castillo and Fort Matanzas are symbolic of each other. One draws people in to become volunteers and the other gives them ways to volunteer which are more diverse. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer at the parks, contact Joe Brehm, Volunteer Coordinator, at 904-829-6506, extension 233.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer