The following is a transcription of The Art of Volunteering Episode 9: Lorrie Hamilton, Longwood Gardens.
Stormy Bell (00:00): Welcome to The Art of Volunteering. I’m your host Stormy Bell. Today we’re traveling to beautiful Chester County to the historic Longwood Gardens. Our guest is Lorrie Hamilton, Director of Volunteer Engagement. Lorrie has been working alongside volunteers for over 20 years and is honored to now lead the Volunteer Program at Longwood Gardens. She manages volunteer recruitment, coordinates onboarding, and orientation sessions. Facilitates training and enrichment opportunities for the volunteer team and organizes recognition of events. Her career began in horticulture, gaining experience at Walt Disney World, the Dallas Arboretum, and Longwood Gardens. After nine years in Longwood’s Horticulture Department, Lorrie’s family relocated to Washington state where she began managing the county’s Master Garden Program and found her passion for volunteer management. After several years of coordinating this volunteer team, Lorrie moved back home to the east coast to continue her career in volunteer management. Welcome Lorrie.
Lorrie Hamilton (01:05): Thank you so much.
Stormy Bell (01:07): Lorrie, some of our listeners might not know about Longwood Gardens or maybe they’ve heard of it, but really don’t know much about the beautiful acres of just gardens and land. Can you share about the history of Longwood Gardens?
Lorrie Hamilton (01:23): Sure. We’re located in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, which is about an hour from Philly and we have a beautiful piece of property. We have 400 acres that are open to our guests and about 1,100 total that Longwood owns. It’s a beautiful, expansive property. We have a meadow, we have a conservatory area, [and] we have fountains. It’s really a gorgeous area to visit and we welcome about 1.5 million guests per year. The property was first purchased by Mr. du Pont in 1906. He purchased the property because it was so beautiful. There [was] an alley of trees that he wanted to preserve so he purchased the property and began gardening it, creating these beautiful gardens and fountains. We try to live the mission that he had for this property by creating the beautiful Longwood Gardens.
Stormy Bell (02:16): Oh, that’s awesome. Now I’ve toured the property, forgive me, I should know the name of it, but the cottage. They have a walkthrough and there’s a center to it. There’s a land contract that the land actually can be traced back to William Penn.
Lorrie Hamilton (02:33): Yes. Yes.
Stormy Bell (02:34): I think that’s just cool!
Lorrie Hamilton (02:37): Yeah so we have Mr. du Pont’s house, the bottom level, the ground level is open to our guests and we have an area that they can walk through the house and they can tour it and read some of the history about the gardens.
Stormy Bell (02:49): Yeah. I like history, I’m not a history buff, but I like it when I learn about it and just how it all connects.
Lorrie Hamilton (02:58): Wow. It’s a really special place.
Stormy Bell (02:59): Sometimes when you see pieces like this and how beautiful it is and you can connect it back to before Pennsylvania was Pennsylvania, it’s just like wow. That’s how that connects! That’s really cool.
Lorrie Hamilton (03:13): Yes.
Stormy Bell (03:15): All right so at Longwood Gardens, we have beautiful gardens, but tell me how do volunteers fit into your program, your activities?
Lorrie Hamilton (03:27): Well of course volunteers are a huge part of our Longwood family. We do consider them family here because without their help, we couldn’t maintain the Gardens the way that they are. So volunteers are active in every single department that we have here at Longwood. They’re active in our horticulture department, in our guest services department. They help out in our facilities, in our marketing departments. They have a huge part in our engagement and learning team. So really they interact with every single staff member and guests that we have on property.
Stormy Bell (03:59): That’s awesome. How many volunteers do you have?
Lorrie Hamilton (04:01): Currently we have about 640. Since the pandemic we’ve had some of those volunteers that haven’t yet felt comfortable coming back, but we do have 640 on our roster.
Stormy Bell (04:12): How many employees do you have?
Lorrie Hamilton (04:15): So that number right now is about 500 with all the part-time and full-time staff. That, again, includes all departments from horticulture through guest services.
Stormy Bell (04:27): I hope our listeners have an opportunity to go visit the Gardens. When you see that you realize why it takes that many people to keep this expanse of just beauty. The flowers, everything you said, the fountains. Yeah, that’s incredible. I wanna circle to you a little bit, describe what you do as the Director of Volunteer Engagement.
Lorrie Hamilton (04:56): For me, this role, it takes on many different hats throughout the week. I work directly with our staff to see how our volunteers can support them. Staff members will reach out to me and say that they need added support in some sort of tasks that they have and then we begin recruiting the volunteers. I’m in charge of all the recruitment and all the meet and greet. So we bring the volunteers on site to do an interview with our staff member to make sure it’s the right fit for them and the staff member. Then I’m involved in the orientation, the onboarding, and the continued recognition of our volunteer team.
Stormy Bell (05:32): That’s awesome. Now I suspect with that many volunteers and the reputation that coming by volunteers is relatively easy. Do you have a wait list?
Lorrie Hamilton (05:42): We do. We do, especially right now. Since COVID, we’ve had to reorganize some portions of our volunteer program so we don’t have as many openings as we had pre COVID. So yes, we do have a wait list right now and we try really hard to fulfill the interests and the availability of new volunteers coming in.
Stormy Bell (06:02): That’s awesome. What type of training do you provide or do you expect your volunteers to kind of come in and know what they’re to do?
Lorrie Hamilton (06:13): Yeah, no. So we tell the volunteers really, they don’t have to have any experience in horticulture or guest services or facilities before they come into their role. We provide them all that training. The first time that they really receive Longwood training is through their orientation and we just go over basic policies and principles of Longwood. From there, their staff supervisors are responsible for the training that they would need for their specific role. For example, in horticulture, their staff supervisors would teach them how to properly prune and deadhead and plant. If they’re in guest services, they go through pretty intensive training on the guest experience and how we can provide that world class experience to our guests.
Stormy Bell (06:52): Do you have retention issues or do people like to stay with you forever?
Lorrie Hamilton (06:57): We’re very, very fortunate because our Longwood volunteers are very dedicated and committed to their roles. So yes, they stay in their roles for quite a long time and we’re very, very grateful for that.
Stormy Bell (07:10): That’s awesome. I’ve had an opportunity to speak with other people and many of them say once a volunteer really truly comes on board and gets involved with whatever the mission is that they stay and it just becomes part of their lifestyle, an extension of who they are.
Lorrie Hamilton (07:30): Yes, you’re very right about that. That’s why the pandemic was so hard because when the Gardens closed down, it was taking that part away from them. You know, some of the volunteers come one day a week, every single week throughout the entire year. So to take them away from that, that was a huge part of their life that was vacant now. Being able to have them return after the pandemic in a very safe way and have them return to their volunteer role that they feel so passionate about was really an honor for us.
Stormy Bell (07:56): Well, there’s a lot of research that just says volunteering helps people with their mental health and their physical health. We saw the effects of people not being around, you know, that social distance and not being around people. You can see how, if they’re coming once a week, and this is the mainstay of their week, how that would totally hinder them and their wellbeing.
Lorrie Hamilton (08:22): Yes. Yeah. We were lucky here at Longwood because our volunteers and guests feel comfortable and safe coming back to the Gardens because it is such a wide open space and they can spend a lot of time outdoors and they can safely social distance if they’re not feeling comfortable being so close together. We were very fortunate at Longwood that our volunteers were able to return after those three months that we were closed down and feel like they can come back in a very safe space.
Stormy Bell (08:49): Oh, that’s awesome. I like that. OK. You have something exciting going on currently at the Gardens. Is it Bruce Munro? Did I say that right?
Lorrie Hamilton (09:00): Bruce Munro, yes! Yeah it’s a beautiful evening light display. It’s called Light: Installations by Bruce Munro and it’s throughout the entire Gardens, our outdoor gardens in and throughout the conservatory. It’s really a beautiful display so if anybody wants to spend a beautiful evening in the Gardens, I would definitely suggest they come and visit.
Stormy Bell (09:20): I know I need to get my tickets reserved. Before it’s gone because sometimes I procrastinate, but I need to get this done. If you go to the website, you can see just beautiful pictures of what it looks like and how mesmerizing it is to walk through.
Lorrie Hamilton (09:37): It’s a stunning stunning display. We were very lucky because our volunteer team were the ones that helped install it. They worked directly with Bruce Munro’s team from the UK and they worked with them for about a six week period to help install all the installations in the outdoor gardens and in the conservatory.
Stormy Bell (09:54): Wow. Now how does that mirror, what you do for the holiday lights, the festivities? That’s incredible too, to walk through there. We did it last year with my mom. She was down, we took her for her birthday. We were there at twilight and the lights were coming on that light tunnel and the different lights going up the trees and making them just illuminate. Was it the same intensity to set that up for [Bruce] as it was for this?
Lorrie Hamilton (10:25): Christmas, you are right, is also a very special time at Longwood. That’s mostly done inhouse. Our arborist put the lights on the trees, our outdoor horticulture team and our indoor horticulture team work to put all lights on the displays. So that’s mostly done inhouse, but our volunteers play a huge role in that also because they support our staff in any of the light displays that need to be put up for the holiday display.
Stormy Bell (10:53): What would you want our listeners today to understand about the work that the volunteers do behind the scenes?
Lorrie Hamilton (11:01): At Longwood our volunteers are a critical part of our Longwood family and they really help support every section of the Gardens and without their assistance, like I had said before, Longwood would never look the way it does because we rely on their help so much. I think a lot of times you’ll hear guests come in and they’ll say, oh, the gardens are beautiful. I never see anybody working. It’s just this beauty that comes up and yes, the gardens are beautiful but it takes a lot of work to keep the gardens looking as beautiful as they are. That is in large part because of our volunteer team. Not only to keep the gardens looking beautiful, but also to engage with our guests and keep our facilities up and running. Our volunteers play a critical part in that.
Stormy Bell (11:50): That’s so awesome to hear. All right can you share a favorite story about your volunteers at Longwood? Just anything, a tender story, an exciting story. Just your favorite story.
Lorrie Hamilton (12:05): Huh that’s a good question. I probably have many, many to share but the one that pops into my head immediately because we just had it. We had a preview night for the Bruce Munro display last Tuesday and we invited all of our volunteers to attend along with our staff members. It was a really special evening to open the Gardens up to our employees and our volunteers and see them all come in and engage in the Gardens and experience the gardens at this very special time. To be able to welcome all the volunteers in, meet family members that they were bringing in as their guests, and then to see how they experienced the Gardens and how much love and passion they have for the Gardens was really a special moment.
Stormy Bell (12:49): I hope you captured some of those expressions on social media or videos, because as you’re describing that, I’m seeing that wonderment. Almost like when you go to Disney the first time, just like that. Wow. Bigger than life.
Lorrie Hamilton (13:04): Yeah. A really nice moment was to hear some of the volunteers, they were allowed to bring a guest with them to the preview night so to hear them talk to their guests about the part that they played in the installation. That they were the one that put this spike in the ground and put the little glass globe on top of it. We have a display with flamingos in [what’s] called a pear shaped basin. They were the ones that helped put the flamingos in the pear shaped basin. They had an active role in creating the beautiful display that thousands of guests are coming to visit per night.
Stormy Bell (13:39): Such personal pride.
Lorrie Hamilton (13:40): Yes. Yes it was.
Stormy Bell (13:43): All right. This is like my favorite question. Tell me about a volunteer blooper and what you learned from the experience.
Lorrie Hamilton (13:55): A blooper.
Stormy Bell (13:58): Something that just didn’t go right. I didn’t mean to stump you.
Lorrie Hamilton (14:06): Yeah I know I know. Okay, so this is a good one. When I first started in this role right before the pandemic hit. About two weeks before we closed down for COVID, I started in this role and I started to try to learn everyone’s names, make connections with the volunteers and then the next thing I know COVID shut everything down. Before I had started in this role, I knew one of the volunteers that worked at Longwood and I asked their advice. What advice do you have for me coming in this role? They said, just take your time easing into the role. Don’t make any changes right away. Just take your time to learn everyone and learn the systems. Then I felt COVID hit and really the only thing that we have done in the past two years was really had to make changes. We had to respond to the pandemic, to the safety requirements, and then the change bringing everyone back in again and retraining everyone. That has been a huge learning experience of not wanting to change but having to change to navigate the situation and then trying to respond to all the volunteers and communicate those needs with them.
Stormy Bell (15:20): Okay.
Lorrie Hamilton (15:21): I don’t know if that was a good blooper, but I think that was the biggest learning experience I had coming into this role that I wasn’t expecting. Who was expecting to have to deal with the pandemic?
Stormy Bell (15:32): Yeah, who knew!
Lorrie Hamilton (15:34): Having to navigate that in a very careful way to make sure we continue communications with the volunteers and make sure that they know that they were continually part of our Longwood family.
Stormy Bell (15:48): You know what, everyone who’s lived through the past couple years can put on their resume “I survived COVID” as a job skill. No matter where they’re working or what they’re doing “I survived COVID.” I learned how to pivot. I learned how to change.
Lorrie Hamilton (16:05): Yes. Very true.
Stormy Bell (16:06): Now we’re at the point in the interview where I invite you to love on Longwood Gardens. Why should someone consider volunteering with you or visiting? Just love, just share your love.
Lorrie Hamilton (16:19): Yeah Longwood is one of those places that as soon as you walk through our doors and the gardens open up to you, it takes your breath away because the beauty of the gardens, the fresh air, the noise of nature around you, it really just takes your breath away. You’ll often notice when our guests come through our visitor center and the doors open, they just stand right there for several seconds and just take it all in because it really is such an amazing place. The beauty that you see here is like no other place that you will see. The gardens are full of life, beauty, and color. It’s some place that you will never see anywhere else, because I don’t know, the experience here is just really amazing. With the Bruce Munro display in the evening, I think it takes a whole new view of the gardens because most of our guests have been used to seeing it during the day where you can’t see all the different colors and the different textures of the plants. Now you get to experience it at night, which is a whole different experience but you can see the light and the sounds and the music that are part of the display, which has brought a whole other view for our guests.
Stormy Bell (17:36): It’s like a total immersion into the gardens. I agree the difference between the daytime and the nighttime is just like visiting a whole different place.
Lorrie Hamilton (17:50): Yes. Yeah and if the viewers haven’t seen the conservatory in the evening hours, that also is a really spectacular time to see the conservatory. During the day, of course is beautiful because you see again, the different colors of plants and the different textures and how they’re all planted together, but at night it’s really just a spectacular time.
Stormy Bell (18:13): Often when I’ve walked through there, I’m like, I wanna have a gala here. I see like a string quartet and people walking around in their fancy dresses with champagne or wine in their hand. It just lends itself that way. So beautiful.
Lorrie Hamilton (18:27): I will say I visited quite a few gardens in the area and other countries and I think Longwood, there’s just nothing like it.
Stormy Bell (18:35): That’s awesome. If our listeners want to learn more about Longwood Gardens or connect with you, how can they find you?
Lorrie Hamilton (18:44): The best place is to go online to the Longwood Gardens website and all of our events are posted there, ticket information, any current activities that we have going on are all posted on our website. I would say that’s the best place to go initially. We also have a volunteer page on our Longwood Gardens website and that gives you all the information about our volunteer program and how to apply if anyone is interested.
Stormy Bell (19:08): Perfect. I’ll put a link in the show notes for Longwood Gardens so they’ll be able to find you. All right well Lorri, thank you for being the guest today on The Art of Volunteering and to our listeners, I look forward to seeing you again. Have a great day bye-bye.
Show Notes & Links
Longwood Gardens – www.longwoodgardens.org
Light: Installations by Bruce Munro – www.longwoodgardens.org/light-installations-bruce-munro
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