By Grace Fricano
Working as a summer
intern in visitor services and at the Botanical Gardens front desk in
particular can be pretty eventful. This is my third year working for the
Gardens but my first summer as an intern. Summers are really different from the
academic year, when I've been employed as a work study. A typical day as a work study meant checking
in, pricing, and displaying merchandise, helping with inventory, and decorating
holiday trees in the conservatory for the annual winter exhibit. In the summer it’s much busier than I’m used
to, with more going on around the gardens. From weddings to snake
bites, we see a lot of different situations that we have to deal with at the
front desk.
One of our many tasks
is fielding questions that visitors may have. We get a lot of random and
strange inquiries about plants, event happenings, and the merchandise we sell.
This summer, the most popular question at the front desk is “Has that one plant
bloomed yet?” While the American agave/century plant is taking its sweet time
to bloom, many people are very eager and want to see it right away even though
its bloom will last several weeks. We post regular updates about the agave on
our website, Facebook page, and blog, and many local and national papers have
covered the story of the agave getting ready to bloom. Even so, people want to
know about the agave from someone on the scene and so we still get calls for
daily updates. It’s fun to hear all the different pronunciations of “agave.”
The most popular is “ah-GAYVE,” but we also hear “ah-GUAH-veh” quite often as
well. The phone rings regularly with questions concerning the agave. It’s great
to see all of the interest in the plant.
Another recent
happening that created quite a buzz at the Gardens was the snake bite. I worked
that day with a Matthaei-Nichols staff person who handled the situation and
quickly made the call for assistance. It’s a rare occurrence for something like
this to happen, but we always have to stay calm, be prepared, and know what to
do when it does occur. My co-worker did a great job responding to the
situation!
The busiest days by
far at the front desk are Saturdays. On summer weekends we usually host two
weddings or more. There’s also very high visitor traffic and other various
events like birthday parties/meetings/workshops. It’s not uncommon that the
parking lot fills up completely at times. Days like that can be crazy! Between
the three visitor services interns (Megan, Sydney, and me) we help host
weddings, restock the gift shop, and deal with visitors. There can be large
crowds that congregate in the lobby. Dealing with multiple people at one time
has taught me to be very patient and to be a great multitasker.
I think one of my
favorite aspects of working the front desk is all of the people that I get to
meet. From employees and interns to visitors, I have interesting conversations
with all types of people and learn something new every day. Even though I don't
work directly in the garden most of the time, I’ve learned a lot about botany
and other fascinating facts.
We can always handle
the crowds and excitement but it makes for some challenging and exciting days.
Being able to kick off my shoes at the end of the day feels amazing, but only
to return on Sunday, our second busiest day of the week. The summer has
been fun, busy, and flying by!
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| Grace Fricano |
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