You put your left foot in, you take your left foot out! You do the hokey
pokey and you shake it all about! You've done it a million times before and
you know there's got to be a more exciting way to liven people up. And there
is.
Environmental interpreter and storyteller Doug Andrew has come up with
a successful solution: Pat the Magic Mollusk.
When a tour group starts to wiggle, Andrew breaks out into song. He's mastered
a system to keep people from getting restless. "So, every three minutes you
have to zap them somehow -- zap 'em, just startle them -- and songs are a
wonderful tool for that," explains Andrew.
Andrew is known amongst park interpreters for his catchy little tune about
a slug named Pat. To the tune of Puff the Magic Dragon, the chorus begins:
"Pat the Magic Mollusk lived by a tree...Somewhere in the morning mist...In
a park called Goldstream!"
Songs and stories, says Andrew, are becoming more popular in interpretative
work as a way of connecting with the audience. At a conference on the weekend,
he discovered that many interpreters share his opinion.
"The number of interpreters that are starting to use a little bit of song
and stories is [growing] more and more," he says. "There's a real desire in
people who are doing this kind of work to make a meaningful connection."
Andrew believes we are culturally deprived of oral traditions, like storytelling
and singing, in North America. "I think that people are basically starved
for that kind of a connection, that kind of personal connection to what's
going on in their life. And that's one of the things that the industry we're
in does very well.
"We connect orally to our customers and to make that personal connection
is a really neat thing. I use songs and stories, [not] because I'm an expert
singer and want to be discovered and go to Broadway. I love to do it and I
just think it's fun for people and kids."
Andrew operates his own consulting business. His main focus is on the human
use of the forest throughout history, starting from the aboriginal people.
He has a bachelor's degree in education and an extensive working history as
an interpreter with the government.
Karen Rosga started out with the government as well. She volunteered with
the National Park Service in 1980, began working as an interpreter by 1984
and is now chief of interpretation at Jewel Cave National Monument in South
Dakota.
"My dream was always to do interpretation for the National Park Service,
but I got a lot of other experience first. I worked in the permits office
for a little while. I worked in the campground. I even did law enforcement
years ago at Devil's Tower. So, I did a lot of general work for the National
Park Service and did a lot of tagging along on other people's programs to
see how it was done. That was very valuable," says Rosga.
Rosga admits, however, that she would approach the field differently if
she could do it all over again. "I'm pretty satisfied with how things have
gone [but] my educational background was not big in natural history. I've
been playing catch up ever since," she says.
If she'd wanted to work in a historical or a cultural park, says Rosga,
her history background would have been perfect. But since she likes working
in natural areas, it would have been advantageous to have a stronger biology
background, she says.
Now, Rosga encourages her staff at Jewel Cave to determine just what it
is about the area that excites them. She encourages them to explore the caves
on their own and pick an interpretative angle that has personal meaning, whether
it's history, culture or geology.
Ask yourself the question, says Rosga, "'What is it about
the resource that truly excites me?' and then go with that.
"My real goal and my goal for my staff is that they can convey their enthusiasm
to visitors, whether by connecting with the visitors' personal experiences
or with their [own] experience with the cave," she says.
While she used to explore the caves often herself, Rosga feels less spry
than she used to! Occasionally, she takes the odd tour and enjoys the sparks
that fly when the interpreter and the audience connect. "I don't get to do
it as much anymore, but I did do a cave tour this morning," says Rosga. "It
was a load of fun!"