Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Expanding our Educational Outreach | Page 18

People and Happenings Program and Special Tour Highlights Through late spring and all summer, Mount Auburn presented a number of varied walks and tours, some perennial events and others one-of-a-kind. A group of 20 members of the Friends of Fenway Court, a donor association of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, visited the Cemetery on May 16 with Bill Clen- daniel, Vice President of Operations & Horticulture David Barnett, and Director of Education & Visitor Services Bree Harvey. Following their walking tour, which included a stop at the Gardner family tomb, the group gathered for refreshments in Bigelow Chapel. Thirty Boston by Foot volunteer docents visited the Cemetery for a tour led by Bree on June 2. Their visit was offered as a training option for the docents, who lead tours of downtown Boston. David Barnett, the well-known birder Bob Stymeist and naturalist Marjorie Rines led a group of 32 to explore Mount Auburn’s “Birds, Butterflies and Botany.” Bree Harvey led the first in a series of evening hour-long sum- mer strolls, which were well attended, with many young families present, while Visitor Services Specialist Dawnielle Peck’s “Discover Mount Auburn” was equally popular throughout the summer. Unique programs included Greenhouse Man- ager Maurene Simonelli’s workshop on medicinal plants at the greenhouse. Bob Stymeist led his annual Nighthawk Watches at Washington Tower, the 22 nd year of the always booked-up event. As part of “Cam- bridge Discovery Days,” Dawnielle Peck led a literary walk, “Mount Auburn: A Muse to our Nation’s Writers,” attended by more than 40 people. On August 24 Bree hosted a tour focused on African-American notables buried at the Cemetery for a group of first-year students from MIT. Mount Auburn hosted members of the newly formed New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America on September 23. Curator of Histori- cal Collections Meg Winslow, accompanied by Archivist Brian Sullivan, led the group on a walk titled “The Arca- dian Necropolis: A Tour of the Romantic Landscape and Classical Monuments of Mount Auburn Cem- etery.” A reception followed in Bigelow Chapel, where members viewed the newly restored North Window. 16 | Sweet Auburn Mount Auburn Wins National Trust for Historic Preservation Award On October 4, the National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion awarded Mount Auburn the 2007 Trustees Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Stewardship of (L to r) Richard Moe, President of the Historic Sites. National Trust for Historic Preserva- tion, Bill Clendaniel and Jonathan “This is a wonderful Kemper, Chairman of the Board of recognition of Mount Trustees, National Trust for Historic Auburn’s many decades Preservation of leadership in main- taining a nationally significant historic site,” says Mount Auburn President Bill Clendaniel, who traveled to St. Paul, MN, to receive the honor. The award “recognizes achievement over a period of at least 25 years in any one or more of the following areas: promoting preservation through unique and effective programming, preservation and maintenance of historical structures and landscapes, interpreta