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Historical Village spotlights some of its volunteers

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Kathy Choquette
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Lynne Campean

At the Sanibel Historical Museum and Village, the duties of the volunteers run the gamut, from greeting guests at the door, to working in the store and giving tours, to farming the pioneer garden.

“Particularly now, in the off season, we’d like to both recognize our volunteers’ contributions and share with the community what it means to be part of the Historical Village family,” Executive Director Emilie Alfino said. “Volunteering at the village is a great opportunity to be part of a committed, dedicated – and fun – group.”

The following are some of the faces visitors to the village may meet:

– Kathy Choquette started volunteering at the village this year. She came to Florida in 1993 after spending nine years living and working in New Orleans. A Fort Myers resident, Choquette started to visit Sanibel in 1983 for a long weekend vacation when her friends had a timeshare condo. From then on, she came more frequently to visit her parents, who had retired on Sanibel as full-time residents.

Presently, Choquette is working at the museum store in the Rutland House, where she enjoys greeting and sharing Sanibel history with visitors. She also likes attending the volunteer lectures to meet original island residents and listen to their stories, which she then passes along to the visitors.

– Lynne Campean joined the village family in 2010. She and her husband have been full-time Sanibel residents for the last 14 years. Prior to coming to Sanibel, Campean was an entrepreneur. She first owned a gift shop and then spent 32 years owning an insurance agency. Earlier, she taught school in the United States and in Germany for the Army.

Campean currently docents in the museum store, but her favorite thing to do is to act as a docent for school children. Morning Glories is her favorite building in the village because she said she could “live there” and because the building represents the ingenuity of the working folks on Sanibel.