Harvest Festival Volunteers FAQ

Quiet Valley is a great place to come and volunteer. We are family focused and educationally driven.  Volunteering with us is a great way to give back to the community.  For students it is great for a resume, school requirement, church requirement, and for Scouting.

We would love to have you volunteer every day of the year but we know that isn’t possible for most of us.  Harvest Festival takes place in October on the Saturday and Sunday of Columbus Day weekend every year. For the days of the Festival we set up work shifts which are from 9:30am to 1:30pm, or 1:00pm to 5:00pm, or all day 9:30 to 5:00pm. Sign up for what works with your schedule. Leading up to Festival we usually have a number of different volunteer days were we need help setting up and cleaning up (see below).

There are a great deal of activities throughout the farm for Festival with which we need help.  Some of them change from year to year based on the theme but here are some of the basics:

• Food Areas: handing out food, preparing food, collecting money
• Historic Craft Demonstrations: basket weaving, blacksmithing, candle dipping, etc.
• Selling Tickets: for horse and wagon rides, school house program, quilt raffle
• Greeters: welcoming visitors, passing out programs and helping direct people
• Children’s Activity areas: craft areas, works stations, children’s games
• Sales: helping in the Gift Shop, Trading Post, God’s Half Acre and Everlastings

Since Quiet Valley demonstrates what life was like during the 1800s, for our historic events we require our volunteers to wear historic costumes.  Don’t feel a need to run out and buy something, we have a costume collection you can borrow from for a small deposit that will be returned with the return of the costume.

Costume requirements are less strict for events than for the museum’s historic tour so many of us have items in our own closets will do for Festival. Gentlemen and boys, do you have a white or plaid button up shirt, brown or tan or gray pants, a straw hat, leather boots or shoes, and suspenders? Then you are set! Ladies and girls, do you have a long sleeve white blouse, long skirt, leather boots or shoes, an apron, a straw hat and/or can braid your hair? Then you are ready to volunteer!

Yes, of course! We have many activities for Harvest Festival for which you don’t need a costume.  Some of them are our Set-Up Days and include activities such as making soup, baking desserts at home, helping set up tables, chairs and tents.

That is something we love to see at Quiet Valley. We encourage multi-generational volunteering! We have certain areas set aside specifically for families such as children’s games, the school house, and some of the historic demonstrations.

There are some areas where we cannot have children volunteer during Festival and these generally include areas with fires, cooking/food prep, and handling money.  At Festival it is difficult to volunteer with babies or toddlers along. Call and see what’s possible. Children need to be 14 years or older to be on site without an adult present.

Set Up and Clean Up Days are the days leading up to and after Festival where we get ready for or put to bed this wonderful event.

• Preparing Everlastings (dried flower arrangements): September-October usually Thursdays
• Soup Making:  two days for making Chicken Corn Chowder and Vegetarian Vegetable usually August
• Set Up Saturdays: The two Saturdays leading up to Harvest Festival when we put out tables, tents and chairs, etc., 9am to 3pm
• Apple Peeling Day: preparing apples for festival, Wednesday before Harvest Festival
• Pie Day: making pies for festival, Thursday before Harvest Festival
• Sausage Patty Making: Thursday evening before Harvest Festival
• Clean Up Day: Monday after Harvest Festival we bring up and clean items, 9am to 3pm