Page 6 - TR What Women Want May 2016

6SS • What Women Want • An Advertising Supplement to the Three Rivers Edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette • Sunday, May 1, 2016
KELVIN GREEN/THREE RIVERS EDITION Vicky Schoeneweis, a park interpreter at Jacksonport State Park, has wanted to work at a state or national park most of her life, but she only realized her dream in adulthood, after leaving a career as a
professional cook.
BY SARAH DECLERK SPECIAL SECTIONS WRITER
Blink, and you might miss it. At about 100 acres, Jacksonport State Park is small but evocative. A stately court-
house built in 1872 and a nearby Confed- erate Memorial echo with the memories of the town’s past. Beneath a levee, the White River rushes by.
Park interpreter Vicky Schoeneweis teaches visitors about the park’s cultural and natural bounty. On July 1, she will cel- ebrate her second anniversary at the park, where she lives. So far, it seems that she and the park are an ideal match.
“This park is perfect for me because I am just as comfort- able interpreting history as I am natural resources,” she said. She and a seasonal park interpreter host various pro- grams and workshops to help visitors connect to the park. Unlike park rangers, who are law enforcement officials,
park interpreters specialize in education.
“I’d always wanted to work in a state or national park,”
she said. “This is something I think I was born with.” However, she did not realize her long-standing dream
until she was well into adulthood.
Schoeneweis grew up on a dairy farm in California, and
she has raised animals throughout her life. In her early 20s, she followed her mother to Missouri, where Schoeneweis lived until she met her husband, Robert, a truck driver from Arkansas who is now a school-bus driver.
Together, they have five children, four of whom are Schoeneweis’ stepchildren, and a home in Evening Shade. For 20 years, she worked as a professional cook until she quit her job one fateful Sunday.
“Keep in mind, I was almost 40 years old at the time, and I had a high school education. I didn’t have any training at
Living the DREAM Park interpreter commits to putting her perfect park ‘back on the map’
all in this sort of work,” she said, adding that she told her husband she would not return to work until she found a job at a state or national park.
It took nine months, but Schoeneweis joined Mammoth Spring State Park in 1996 as a museum guide at the 1886 Frisco depot, where she worked for 3 1/2 years seasonally. She teared up when she thought of the park’s superinten- dent, Dave Jackson.
“He gave me the chance, and he’s been my mentor ever since,” she said. She later worked in the courthouse at Powhatan Historic State Park.
“While there, I realized that I couldn’t advance any further without a college degree, so at the age of 47, I quit,” she said.
While she pursued her degree, Schoeneweis drove school buses. She attended Ozarka College for two years, then transferred to Arkansas Tech University after learning that her previous superintendents earned their degrees there.
She struggled with a few classes, but her hard work and perseverance paid off; she now has a Bachelor of Science degree in recreation and parks administration.
After graduating, it was difficult for Schoeneweis to find a full-time position, she said. She spent four months at Lake Ouachita State Park; then in 2008, she took a seasonal position at the Buffalo National River.
She landed next at Historic Washington State Park, where she spent seven years. However, the park was quite a distance from her home in Evening Shade, and she and her husband sometimes spent months without seeing each other, she said.
Then 3 1/2 years ago, Robert underwent emergency surgery to remove his gallbladder, and gangrene could have claimed his life, Schoeneweis said.
“That told me that [I] better start looking for something closer to home, so I did,” she said.
Now, she is only 55 miles from home, and she can meet her husband in Batesville for dinner, she said. The two have fond memories of Jacksonport State Park, the first park they visited as newlyweds, she said, adding that she also wrote a report on the park for a class.
“There’s been a connection down through the years with this park,” she said. “I made a brag when I was hired here. During the interview, they asked me what I would do with my time here, and I said, ‘I want to put Jacksonport back on the map.’”
It looks as though she is making strides to achieve that goal, in part because of the many workshops and programs she presents.
“The workshops are doing very, very well, and the thing is, I’m trying to keep every one of those historically accu- rate because of our time period,” which is between 1830 and 1888, she said. “I have to make sure that everything is authentic and that it actually happened here.”
The programs run the gamut from seasonal, such as Victorian ornament workshops, to outdoorsy, such as hikes and fishing workshops. Some workshops, like those about the “three sisters” gardens, focus on the history of the area’s Quapaw tribe.
Because the site was occupied by Union and Confed- erate troops during the Civil War, many workshops focus on history with titles such as Valentines and Love Letters of Confederate Soldiers.
“Some of those letters made it home; some of them didn’t,” she said. “They are difficult to read.”
She often focuses on herbal medicines of the time, and she takes all her formulas from the 1863 book Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests, by Francis Peyre Porcher. She said she wants her research to be impeccable so her programs are accurate.
“I read a lot on all kinds of different subjects, whether