Be the Change

Volunteer at the Red House Interpretive Center

Anne Hutson, docent coordinator at the Red House Interpretive Center in Cape Girardeau, stands on the spacious front porch of the center in what would have been known in the 1800s as �traditional farm woman attire.�

�I�d like to welcome you to the Red House Interpretive Center,� Hutson says. �You�re standing now in the valley of the Mississippi River.�

Anne Hutson stands in full dress for a photo at the Red House Interpretive Center in Cape Girardeau.Kassi Jackson ~ Southeast Missourian

It is a beautiful fall day, and Hutson starts the tour outside. The Red House Interpretive Center is a replica of the original Red House, which was built across the street as a home and trading post by the founder of Cape Girardeau, a French Canadian named Louis Lorimier.

The center was built by volunteers in the early 2000s and is maintained by them year-round, along with local garden clubs, Cape Girardeau�s Parks and Recreation Department and the Parks and Recreation Foundation. It is open to the public on Saturdays from the beginning of May until the end of October.

The outside of the center pays homage to classic French architecture with vertical log construction, and the inside displays authentic pieces that would have been traded during the time Lorimer resided there. There are tea blocks, pieces of cotton cloth, bells, playing cards, ox horn cups, bone-handled forks and even ostrich feathers on display, to name just a few of the artifacts.

Don Koehler, volunteer and co-chair of the Red House Interpretive Center Advisory Board, says he is involved with the center because he is a bit of a history buff.

�I�ve enjoyed history and different parts of history throughout my whole life,� Koehler says.

He says that his part as co-chair entails thinking up new activities and ways to keep the Red House going. He says having an interest in the history of Cape Girardeau is important for people who are volunteers at the center.

�Without that, it doesn�t amount to much,� Koehler says. �[Volunteers] will take what we give them and further develop it on their own. Most of all, you should interact and enjoy it.�

There are many ways to get involved, since the center is made possible by people willing to volunteer their time and efforts. People can volunteer as docents who give scripted tours, work at special yearly activities or man the store inside the center.

Julia Jones, Parks and Recreation director and Red House Interpretive Center Advisory Board liaison, says the center is always looking for docents who have a passion for history.

�The volunteers get to experience the boat dockings,� Jones says, speaking of the ways volunteering at the center is an enriching experience. �People come down the Mississippi River and get to wander downtown, and one of their stops is the Red House. Some volunteers have spoken with people that live as far away as Australia and Japan. You get to share that part of our city and the history. The docents are very proud of Cape.�

Hutson has been volunteering with the center for 15 years and was even there on opening day. She says she enjoys meeting the people that visit the center, especially the kids. Of the 2,000 visitors the center gets each year, she says that at least 500 are children.

�I�m a retired teacher,� Hutson says. �I taught fifth grade for eight years. While teaching fifth grade, you�re really starting to get into the history. The local history, as well as the state and U.S. history. I have always been interested in that.�

This year, the volunteers plan to celebrate a �French Christmas� at the Red House during the first two weekends of December.

�We hope people join us down here,� Hutson says. �People wouldn�t have decorated much for Christmas back then. It would have been boughs of evergreens, and one thing that the French loved were the red ribbons, so we will have a lot of red ribbons.�

---

According to the Mayo Clinic, there are six main benefits to volunteering: it helps us ward off depression, feel purposeful, decrease stress, stay physically and mentally active, create new relationships and increase life expectancy. We want all of that for you. In this fifth installment of TBY�s �Be the Change� volunteer series, we focus on volunteering at the Red House Interpretive Center in Cape Girardeau.