Workday: Calvert Marine Museum – April 16, 2016

Photo By Anne Puppa
Volunteers in front of recently repainted addition. L to R Andy Gray, Paula Liebrecht, Tony Pasek, Lauren Liebrecht, Joan Spiece

It was a beautiful spring day down at Cove Point Light Station in Calvert County Maryland. Six volunteers arrived at the light station on Saturday morning and were greeted with sunshine and slight bay breeze as we went to work. We were met by Richard Dodds the Curator of Maritime History at the Museum. He had everything organized for us. He had set out the supplies we would need and walked us through the work list. The main tasks were to apply a final coat of paint to the exterior of the two additions on the back of the keeper’s house. The touch up work had already been done and it just needed a top coat of white paint. The other main task was to repaint the concrete floor and steps at he entrance of the visitor center. We broke up into teams of two and went to work. All the work was outside so it was a good thing the weather was in our favor. In fact, except for the wind picking up in the afternoon, it could not have been nicer.

The porch to the visitor center required a bit of scraping and priming so while the primer was drying we swept the stairs and base of the tower and removed the sand and shells that had accumulated on the walkway in front of the bell shed. When those jobs were done, the primer had dried and we were able to apply a coat of paint to the porch. Each of the additions had one side that presented a little bit of a challenge in getting around air conditioning units or tanks. But the two crews each figured out a plan of attack. Before we knew it, it was one o’clock so we broke for lunch. After a pleasant break we finished up the work on the additions, applied a second coat of paint to the porch and sadly (because it was soooo nice out) headed home.