This year, 90 women and 20 children from Columbus Air Force Base are volunteering with the Columbus Spring Pilgrimage.
Most of them are serving as hosts and hostesses on home tours, according to Nancy Carpenter, executive director of the Columbus Cultural Heritage Foundation.
The majority of the volunteers from the base were recruited through the Columbus Air Force Base Spouses Club, according to the club’s advisor Melissa McArthur.
McArthur lives on the base, where her husband is vice wing commander. She was unable to volunteer during last year’s spring Pilgrimage. When Carpenter told her this year was the 75th anniversary, McArthur was determined to help. She is in charge of coordinating Pilgrimage volunteers from CAFB.
McArthur and the Spouses Club began asking for volunteers among military families living on base via email and social media. A couple of months ago, the club held an information meeting to let CAFB families know what Pilgrimage was and what opportunities there were for families to get involved. Between 30 and 40 people attended the meeting and signed up to volunteer, McArthur said.
“It was a great turnout,” she said.
Making period costumes
The Spouses Club also helps with Pilgrimage by providing funding to Patricia Wilson and other military wives who create period costumes for the home tours during Pilgrimage. Wilson is another military wife recruited as hostess during Pilgrimage.
About 10 years ago, she began sewing Pilgrimage dresses. She had worked as a hostess at Rosewood Manor and other houses for several years and knew it was difficult to find period costumes that fit all body types. At first Wilson took bridesmaid dresses and added hoopskirts and lace to make them look like gowns from the 19th century.
“They’re a lot prettier now and more authentic than when we first started,” she said.
Over the years, Wilson not only recruited more volunteers to help make the gowns, but the gowns became more authentic to the time period. Part of that is thanks to the Spouses Club, which provides funding for Wilson to buy patterns and fabric. The club also provides coat racks and bags to store the gowns in during the rest of the year.
For the 75th year of Pilgrimage, Wilson has a sewing club of seven members who began working on the gowns last October. Volunteers began coming in to get fitted in January and started picking up their dresses last week. Once Pilgrimage is over, they will give the costumes back to Wilson who stores them in her home.
‘They want to give back to the community’
Once they have their gowns, the volunteers’ real work begins. Their primary job is to help homeowners whose houses are on the home tours. The volunteers’ responsibilities vary depending on the house where they work, but they generally give information about the house to tourists who come through and make sure traffic moves from room to room, McArthur said.
Most of the volunteers are the wives of current or retired military members, but sometimes their children and spouses help. The kids are also in costume and always in the same homes as their parents, according to McArthur.
Both McArthur and Wilson agree it is easy to get volunteers from the base. McArthur credits the young, energetic population of people with a lot of ideas.
“They have so much energy that they want to give back to the community,” she said.
“When you’re part of a military family…you’re always looking for that connection,” McArthur said. “We don’t have family in the area, so if we can connect with the local community, we feel more at home.”
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