The Shawnee Indian Mission is a valuable community resource. It’s a gathering place, a showcase, a landmark and a learning center. The many organizations that serve as Mission partners enable the Mission to offer to attract and engage visitors of all ages. This column focuses on one such partner.
The Johnson County Young Matrons are the animators that make that history come alive at the Shawnee Indian Mission. Since 1986, when this partnership began with a co-hosted Christmas Open House, these dedicated ladies have decked the halls, donned the costumes, dipped the wassail and designed dozens of activities. They’ve donated their energy, time, talent and dollars to make a day at the Mission a lively and memorable experience for every young visitor.
According to Mission Director Jennifer Laughlin, the JCYM are a “team of do-ers. When they take on a project, they jump right in. They make sure everything is well-done, fully completed and always fun.” In their thirty-year collaboration with the Mission , they have shaped the experiences of hundreds of visitors, especially the school children and their teachers.
Martha Wofford, past JCYM President and active Mission volunteer, recalls that the JCYM began hosting field trips to the Mission in the 1990s. When the school children or young scouts stepped off their buses, it was these costumed ladies who greeted them and re-created a “day in the life of a child in the early days of the mission. We had a school room with old-fashioned desks, primers, chalkboards and slates. And we led the young visitors through some of the activities that children did at the Mission. Back then, we called it ‘Theme Days.’”
Now the field trip to the Mission is called “Trails through the Mission.” About 12 years ago, JCYM members helped to write the guidelines to the Trails experience, which is designed to complement the Kansas state curriculum for fourth grade students. As is the tradition, the students are still greeted by ‘pioneer ladies’ in full costume, but now the lesson focuses on the a later period in the history of the Mission: when it served as a starting point and outfitting station for settlers traveling west. With help from the ladies, the young visitors gather supplies and pack their covered wagons for the long journey across the prairie.
Over the years, the JCYM have provided most of the costumes, equipment and supplies that make this visit to the Mission such a lively learning experience, one that’s become a favorite field trip for students, scouts, teachers and scoutmasters throughout the Kansas City area.
In recent years, the JCYM have co-hosted a new and already popular event at the Mission: a Pioneer Tea Party. Once again, the JCYM ladies decorate and ‘dress for the occasion,’ but this time they also bake all the goodies and serve all the refreshments. As with all things, the 2020 version of the Tea Party will be different; this year the JCYM ladies will pack individual boxes of treats for the guests to enjoy at home.
It’s clear that the “Mission experience,” whether as a field trip or a Tea Party or Open House, carries the imprint of the JCYM. Jan Jansen, past KCYM representative to the SIM Foundation and tireless volunteer, said, “I love the collaboration between JCYM and the SIM…two organizations with memberships passionate about serving the community and bringing history to life!”
From the Mission’s perspective, the JCYM partnership is essential. In just the last ten years, they’ve contributed 7,336 volunteer hours and $33,500. Impressive as those numbers are, there’s no way to quantify the full scope of their contribution – their energy, spirit and creativity.
