People and Happenings
Volunteer Profile: Pam Pinsky
The Lynch Foundation in the amounts of $ 30,000 each, we have received another $ 30,000 from the Harold Whitworth Pierce Charitable Trust and $ 5,000 from the Richard Saltonstall Charitable Trust. Mount Auburn has until May 2011 to match the original MCFF grant( see page 21 for more details on this special project).
People and Happenings
Awards Granted for Greenhouse Initiative
Progress towards the Greenhouse Initiative has resulted in $ 20,000 grants from both the Edwin S. Webster Foundation and the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust, as well as $ 7,500 from the Roy A. Hunt Foundation designated for the rainwater cistern that will help us in achieving LEED( Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum Certification.
Volunteer Profile: Pam Pinsky
Joining Worlds Together
by Jessica Bussmann, Education & Volunteer Coordinator
Above: Pam participating in a tour of the cut-flower gardens.
Left: Pam attending Jennifer Johnston’ s photography exhibit at the Watertown Free Public Library.
In a short 16-month time span Pam Pinsky made a lasting impact on Mount Auburn; her varied interests of history, art, and nature culminated together in this special place, and it seemed to be the ideal volunteer opportunity. After completing docent training in August 2009, she shared her enthusiasm for the Cemetery
Pam Pinksy during a weekly shift in the Visitors Center and also while out in the Watertown community. Everywhere she went she encouraged people to visit Mount Auburn, always stunned when she met a local person who had never set foot inside the gate despite passing by every day for years.
She even persuaded her friend and former co-worker, Nancy McLellan, to become a docent. McLellan says of her friend,“ When Pam was passionate about something, it was infectious. You knew all about it and wanted to be a part of it.”
During the spring migration Pam could be found on bird walks several times a week, and although she was undergoing chemotherapy for her cancer, it never diminished her spirit on those early mornings of searching for warblers. One of her legacies at Mount Auburn will be the ten years of spring migration sightings that she indexed.
Pam grew up in West Hartford, Conn., but she devoted her attention to her adopted home of Watertown. She was the common denominator and connector among many Watertown institutions; she volunteered at the Watertown Free Public Library, the Historical Society of Watertown, the Arsenal Center for the Arts, and as a founding member of the Shakespeare Reading Group. Through her varied contributions— leading walking tours, cataloging the collections of the Historical Society, indexing the Watertown town records, working in the gift shop of the Arsenal Center, helping at public programs, and serving as an election warden – she fostered so many meaningful connections within the community. Joining all of her worlds together, Pam made an effort to make each institution aware of the others.
Marilynne Roach, President of the Historical Society of Watertown, says of Pam,“ Pam’ s volunteering activities were so various that many of her friends in one organization often weren’ t aware of how much she was doing with the other groups.... It seems that her volunteering at Mount Auburn Cemetery brought most of her interests together in one setting: history, art, horticulture, nature— you name it.”
On January 14, Pam died after a 20-year battle with cancer. Many who were fortunate enough to have made her acquaintance may never have known she was ill— she kept busy, upbeat, and strong. Pam also loved to spend time in her garden, scoping out yard sales, reading, and her family describes her as the“ glue” that held them all together. She will be remembered throughout the community for her strength, service, and joyful nature.
Pam is now interred in Spruce Knoll, a section of Mount Auburn designed to look like a secluded forest and one of the more distinct“ neighborhoods” here since those interred share communal plaque space. Though Pam will be missed by all those whose lives she touched, she has forever become a part of the community that she loved so well.
Spring / Summer 2011 | 17