Volunteer Highlight: Barb and Doug Henderson

Barb and Doug Henderson. Photo by Rachel Lukas.

“We meet fun people from different backgrounds, learn from those differences and create closer friendships with experts in the field.”

Live in: Sevastopol

Professions: We’re both retired, but during our professional lives, Barb focused on art, and Doug worked as an educator and retired as the first executive director of the Door County Maritime Museum.

Number of years in Door County: Full time since 1992. Before that, Barb had been a summer resident since childhood because her father was a researcher at the Peninsular Agricultural Research Station (PARS). 

Started volunteering: After Barb signed up for the second Master Gardeners class and took Doug along 

Area of interest: Educational opportunities

Volunteer accomplishments: Run the Education Committee for the Door County Master Gardeners Association (DCMGA), volunteer with programming at Crossroads and maintain The Garden Door on the PARS grounds

Why they began volunteering, and why they continue: We started in order to give back to organizations that are doing good in the county. We continue because we like seeing people enjoy learning.

What they’ve gained from volunteering: Meeting many fun people from different backgrounds, learning from those differences and creating closer friendships with experts in the field.

Favorite volunteering moment: At the end of a season at PARS, Barb’s father would host a fish boil at their house, with Doug acting as the boil master. Later, a speaker who had been invited to a DCMGA meeting and sat next to us recalled coming to PARS as a graduate student and going to someone’s house for a fish boil.