Latest / WashCo Insider / Jeanine DeBor

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Jeanine DeBor · WashCo Insider

• speaker-0: There was a time when trolleys were a vital part of everyday life, connecting communities, transporting workers, and helping shape the growth of towns and cities throughout our region. Today the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum keeps that history alive, offering visitors a chance to step back in time and experience an era when trolleys ruled the rails. Today we're joined by Janine Debore, Executive Director and CEO of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. For Janine, the museum is more than just a place to preserve history. ⁓ Janine Debore, when we come back. Janine, thanks for joining us this morning. speaker-1: Thank you so much for having me and that's a wonderful intro. Thank you. speaker-0: ⁓ absolutely. So before we get into it, tell us a little bit about yourself, where you grew up, you know, what life was like before you ⁓ joined the Charlie Museum. speaker-1: I grew up in the South Hills of Pittsburgh, s specifically South Baldwin, so I'm BHS grad and I went to Duquesne for undergrad. Always knew that I wanted to be a lawyer, mainly because I love history and I just wanted to do good for people. So I went to Dickinson Law for law school and entered a law career that lasted about fifteen years. speaker-0: Wow. And was there a certain area that you focused on? speaker-1: I was gravitated toward again like helping people. So I did social security workers' compensation, claimants work, general litigation. The last job I had before making a transition out of law was with Kids Voice, which is a nonprofit that represents abused and neglected kids in Allegheny County. The best work I ever did, the hardest work I ever did. speaker-0: And then I believe ⁓ from there you spent some time at Duquesne in the development office with alumni relations. And for me that seems like a bit of a natural progression than over to the trolley museum. But I maybe you don't see a lot of lawyers ⁓ at museums. Like what was that transition like for you? Did it feel like a natural fit and natural step? speaker-1: Well, the step to go to Duquesne, really, quite frankly, I did not know what I wanted to do with my law career. I am still a licensed attorney. I am a member of the Washington County Bar Association. But at that time I just didn't know what to do. And a friend of mine, a lawyer, ⁓ said, Hey, you know, she worked at Duquesne University in plan giving, and she said, Why don't you apply to the law school? They have a job over there, marketing, development, alumni relations. I applied, got the job, I stayed there for 15 years. I loved it. I loved the interactions that I had with people, developing those relationships. Frankly, a lot of lawyers do transition into fundraising and development work. It's not uncommon. Maybe because, again, building relationships with people, it just comes naturally. And building those relationships at Duquesne and all the work I did, fundraising really prepared me for the transition to the trolley museum. speaker-0: Well, we you had a chance to talk a little bit yesterday and I asked you if you had a particular interest in trolleys beforehand or the history of transportation and I didn't know what your answer was going to be, but I would love for you to tell us the background there ⁓ because it is a great story. speaker-1: Well thank you. I I do love history. Transportation history was not the top of my history-loving categories. ⁓ my connection to the Trolley Museum is my grandfather. My grandfather, Tony DeSensi, is a Washington County native, was a Washington County native, first generation Italian, ⁓ born of Italian immigrants, ⁓ World War Two veteran, returned. And ⁓ even before and after, worked at Pittsburgh Railway Company, which was the predecessor of the Port Authority, the predecessor of PRT. And his dad worked at the Tyler Dill car house here, fixing trolleys. Taught my grandfather how to operate a trolley when he was seven years old. So you can imagine this little kid peering over ⁓ the controller out the window. ⁓ that was my grandpa. So that's what you know, he was kind of He was continuing the family business and after the war, had a long career fixing trolleys, fixing the signals. Then when the trolleys were phased out, he was working on power and incline, still working on the signals, overhead wiring, etc. After the day after he retired, I swear, he came down to the trolley museum and volunteered. And he volunteered for nearly twenty-three years. So I'm very my family's very familiar with the museum. ⁓ volunteered a lot of years there with him. But his passion was that museum. He loved the people. The people loved him. A lot of people there still good friends of my grandfather. So I have a really true connection to that place through him. I I he loved it there. I love it there. speaker-0: What a treasure he must have been. What a great find to find someone who was working on the trolleys beforehand and now can continue that. speaker-1: Right. He taught them the ⁓ the kind of the tricks and the shortcuts on how to maintain trolleys, so yeah. speaker-0: So you've had ⁓ a couple of different roles with the trolley museum since you joined. What is it about the trolley museum that kind of keeps you passionate every day? speaker-1: Really it's it's two things. My love of history, the importance of this history, but even greater than that, my grandfather and all of the volunteers the time that they put into this place, the hours, thousands of hours, weeks, decades building it to what it is today, having that vision, having that passion, having that drive to get it done, and just having the talent. And passing that on to generation to generation. I am there because of the volunteers and specifically because of my grandfather. I want their legacies to continue forever and ever. speaker-0: I think speaking about ⁓ passion and drive, we'd be remiss not to mention that ⁓ you worked alongside Scott Becker, who just wrapped up a maybe 30 year career with the with the trolley museum. ⁓ as he kind of transitioned out, you transitioned in, what was it like working with Scott? And you know, he was part of a a longer vision that even started before him, and we'll get into that a little bit later. But ⁓ what was it like working with Scott and seeing his passion for the museum as you came in? speaker-1: Scott's a tremendous person, great mentor. His knowledge of the industry and streetcars is vast. The museum took a leap of faith when they hired him in 1993 as their first executive director and first employee, frankly. And he, along with the volunteers, had this vision of expanding it. And it is where it is today because of Scott and the work that he did alongside the members and the volunteers, the community relationships that he built. his knowledge, his love and passion for all the trolley museums across the nation. Scott's a great friend to many, many trolley museums. there's about twenty-two or so nationwide. So it was really great for me to work alongside him ⁓ for two and a half years before he approached me about taking over, which was a very humbling and honoring, beautiful experience for me. ⁓ I've been very blessed in so many ways. God has blessed me working with Scott working at the museum and Scott's still around. He's a volunteer there. So yeah, he's never too far away if I have a question. speaker-0: I couldn't imagine the place without him. And y you couldn't ever really know the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum without knowing Scott too. So when you're not busy running the trolley museum, what do you like to do with your free time? You have hobbies? What keeps you busy outside of the museum? speaker-1: Absolutely. I love jazz music. I love disco music, which if anybody attended the gala last year they would have seen me dancing a storm on the dance floor. We had a amazing time. I do like to read, but I love to visit historical places. Like my travels, I don't really go to the beach. I go to historical places. That's something my parents instilled in me and my sister at a very young age. One of my very first vacations and a true love. was Colonial Williamsburg and I was kinda hooked on history after that. So that's what I like to do. Okay. speaker-0: Okay. Now you guys had a very big announcement earlier this year, which is that USA Today named the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum one of the ten best small town museums in the country. It was a Reader's Choice Award. Tell us a little bit about that. speaker-1: We were surprised, blown away, honored, when Rebecca Beckard, our marketing manager, s forwarded to me, she almost thought it was spam. And so sh I said, do a little digging, and she did. And we were truly amazed. We had not been on this list before. And I thought, well, this is great. Let you know, first year on this list, hopefully we'll be voted into the top ten. Well, then we were number three in the voting, and then we were number two. And I said to myself, wow, this is just truly amazing. It it's it's voter supported, obviously, but you have to be picked by a panel of experts that are unknown. So ⁓ and then when we got the announcement that we were number one, truly honored, truly, truly grateful to the community support for ⁓ for getting us there. And ⁓ we have that designation for a year. Hopefully we can do it again next year. speaker-0: Well, I want to talk about some of the developments that have happened at the Charlie Museum. And if you haven't been there in a couple of years, listen in intently because a lot has changed. Now, the New East campus opened 2023. And so I moved out here to Washington County about seventeen years ago, 2010. And I remember vividly, ⁓ whenever I came out here talking about this project back then, but it's way older than that. speaker-1: Yes, November twenty three. speaker-0: Tell us about kind of the process to bring the new East campus to fruition. speaker-1: I have talked to volunteers who told me that when they hired Scott, this is what they wanted to do. They wanted to expand the track all the way down to the east side, make it a two-mile track for a four mile trip, and built this big building where you could have amazing exhibits and have all the collection in one well, half the collection on display in one place and have it be convenient for visitors. So even before this building was built. In you started out at our West campus, our old campus, you still had to take the trolley down to the trolley display building, be down there for maybe half hour, and then come back. Well now you walk into this amazing twenty one thousand square foot welcome and education center and everything's all there. speaker-0: And it is amazing. Thank you. So with that, tell us a little bit more about the the Welcome and Education Center. It's twenty thousand square feet, right? Yeah. and you've got a new power source now, which is a very big deal. More than even you guys need, I believe, right? Tell us a bit. speaker-1: Thank you. Twenty It's incredible. We have ⁓ the Swanson Solar Energy System, thanks to Dr. and Mrs. John Swanson. John Swanson being the founder of ANSIS and a brilliant man, ⁓ very ⁓ very much into sustainability and very charitable and generous. And we started out with a hundred panels in two thousand nine. With the Swanson support, we added over eight hundred more. So we have nine hundred and thirty-seven panels. on the trolley display building and the Welcome and Education Center at our East Campus. So that energy that we draw from the sun through those panels operates all the buildings, maintains the power on all the buildings down at that campus, and the trolleys on the line. We, as far as I could ever tell and do through research, we were the first transportation museum or system of any kind in North America to do this. Since then a couple of museums have followed suit and I think it an and that's a great thing because it saves us last year we saved seventy five thousand dollars in electric bills. speaker-0: Unbelievable. It's a wonder. You guys have so much you're able to sell it back to the power company too. speaker-1: Right. speaker-0: That's fantastic. So you walk into the Welcome and Education Center. ⁓ on the right you see this beautiful gift shop. On the left, tell us about that room and how it's been used. speaker-1: The Grand Entry Hall is ⁓ it's an amazing space. ⁓ you mentioned the gift store. The gift store is larger than the entire ⁓ visitor center at the old campus. Yeah. So that says something right there. If you turn to your left, we have a space that we use as a theater. So you see a wonderful video about trolleys, and we we switch out every several months some videos featuring our volunteers and some other things that are fun to watch. That space, though, that the theater is in can be expanded into A thirty four thousand square foot foot facility for rentals and w that's where we have our our two hundred plus person gala. We have weddings there. ⁓ we have graduations there. We have ⁓ we had McGuffey Prom there for two years. So it's a great space. Great space. speaker-0: Very functional. And we just used it ⁓ two weeks ago for the Washington County prayer gathering. We needed a green room for the artists. And funny enough, ⁓ besides it being used as a typical green room, I mentioned that one of the artists who was kind of jet setting back and forth between concerts needed to record the vocals for a demo that he was putting out and he recorded it there at the Trolley Museum in the green room. I love that. speaker-1: I love that he was able to do that. speaker-0: So once you've seen kind of the displays, what I love is that now you can walk out right onto Volunteer Boulevard, which is stunning. Tell us a little bit about that and the new functionality that comes with Volunteer Boulevard. speaker-1: Right, so like I said, you used to have to take this tr a trolley down to the trolley display building to see the twenty-four or so trolleys on display there. Well now you walk, as you said, you walk out after looking at the galleries, including an interactive exhibit gallery, ⁓ 15 exhibits that we did ⁓ in a partnership with the Cayman Science Center. ⁓ walk out to this beautiful 33,000 handlaid brick street called Volunteer Boulevard, and it's been dedicated obviously to our volunteers. Under a gorgeous canopy with stanchions from the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie railroad station in Pittsburgh. So ⁓ if you've been to the Grand Conqueror, you've seen these things. And it's like walking back in time. We have what we like to call, ⁓ Scott always said it was a movie set. It truly is. I mean, it looks like something from the 40s and 50s. We have Wexford Station, which is an original station on the Harmony line that ran from the city of Pittsburgh north. And ⁓ That is there, beautifully restored by our volunteers. And then there's a lovely park, the Barry Stout Park. Senator Barry Stout was a great supporter of the museum, ⁓ as have been so many other of our polit political friends and representatives. ⁓ but the park is dedicated to Barry and it's an amazing park. The kids love it. There's ⁓ custom made equipment for them to play around on. ⁓ then you walk into the trolley display building and that is a twenty eight thousand square foot facility that houses like I mentioned about twenty two twenty th twenty twenty or so of our cars ⁓ restored or not, a few of them. They are for demonstration. They are meant to tell the history of the trolley era. You can do self-guided tour. We normally have volunteers as docents in there, happy to answer any questions, but it's really a great experience just to walk up and down and s and you can go on the trolleys. speaker-0: Let's talk about the experience a little bit. So for someone who's never been there, maybe it's grandparents who live through the trolley era era that wanna introduce it to the grandkids. ⁓ talk a little bit about the experience of of being there. speaker-1: I think that what makes it so much fun is that it is truly an immersive experience. It's not just and I don't wanna I don't mean this in any bad way at all. It's not just looking at trolleys on display, which would be great a great thing to do. But you can take a ride on a beautifully restored, hundred year old, in some cases, antique trolley that people from the nineteen twenties and thirties and forties and fifties rode on to to all their daily activities. And I love to see grandparents bringing their children and their grandchildren in there to show them these things. And I love it when the kids ⁓ the kids call them the trains. ⁓ that's okay. one of the happiest days that I can have is and it happens a lot, I'm happy to say, is when I hear a child saying, I don't want to leave, I don't wanna leave, and the parent is saying, We've been here four hours, we have to go. So so there but that just that just shows you how much more there is to do there between the Those wonderful interactive exhibits that I described. I mean, you can actually operate a trolley on our trolley simulator. It's one of our that's very cool. Yeah. It's a cool thing and it's our most popular exhibit. And just getting on those trolleys and taking a twenty minute ride down through the valley up to Arden, or what we t what we call a city ride, which is about five or ten minutes the other way. So you can t you can ride two tr at least two trolleys every day, all day. speaker-0: Let's go backwards in time. So the the trolley museum has been a part of Washington County for more than seventy years, but how did it all begin and and why was Arden such a great spot for the trolley museum to land? speaker-1: Our forefathers in the 1940s formed what was called the ⁓ Pittsburgh Electric Railway Club. They saw, these were people who loved streetcar transportation, but saw that it was waning in popularity and it was soon going to go away. They had the foresight to obtain, purchase some vehicles. So three streetcars were purchased and they were stored by Pittsburgh Railway Company. We've always had a really good relationship with Pittsburgh Railways and then Port Authority and now PRT. And it was stored at the Ingram Car House. And the question is, well, what are you gonna do with vehicles that are sixty feet long and fifty tons? What's the museum look like? And that wasn't really heard of. I mean, trying to find a place to put these things back then, I mean, museums were galleries, but what these guys wanted to do was preserve this form of transportation for for decades to come. So when Pittsburgh Railways abandoned their interurban line from Washington and Charleroi to Pittsburgh in 1953, a plot of land th that line became available, so to speak. We purchased railway from them for a 20,000-foot line that is our still our line today, that is on the original Chartier's Washington to Pittsburgh line, and it was leased. by the county at that time it and it and then our the Pittsburgh Railway Club talked to the commissioners. We've always had a great relationship with the commissioners and we were they were able to lease that property nice and flat, on the original line, very historic and ⁓ just a great place really to bring down these three large vehicles and and they quickly built a what we call our founders barn after that to put them inside. And that's how we began. speaker-0: Well, going back and thinking back to the the heyday of trolleys, tell us about how important they were to everyday life in western Pennsylvania and how extensive was the trolley network here? speaker-1: Right. So you have to think of what was the mode of transportation before streetcars? Horse, walk, carriage. In the mud. Very messy. Very slow, right? Yeah. ⁓ somebody got smart and said, well, let's put down some rail and have some horses, you know, pull a car on the rail. And that was good because that at least got you out of the mud. But they were horses and they had to be maintained and not always clean. And you know, there were other issues there. And electricity was coming around eighteen eighty, eighteen ninety, and everybody was excited about it. And ⁓ Frank Sprague in Virginia found a way to electrify streetcars on rail. And that's how it all began. And you have this wonderful mode of transportation that gets people around very quickly to places where they could not get to easily by foot, very comfortably, and it's a very efficient process. So this revolutionized how people how people travel. This is the first major mass transportation system in America and quite frankly the world. And it got people to church, to to the store, to community events, to the theater, all these places. And the cars are filling up with neighbors. So you have this community. Everybody rode the trolley, right? From all walks of life, you're getting on a trolley with people of different cultures and neighborhoods. And it built cities, because now we have a lot of people coming into the cities who want to eat and go to the store and whatnot, but it also built the suburbs. And we would not have the suburbs unless you had streetcars taking people from the outskirts back in to a city and back. Those are called interurban lines. And it all the way along those lines, it got developed. People started buying houses, setting up little communities. Wonderful, wonderful way. to transport, to travel, and ⁓ the first major mass transportation extremely important. The heyday I would say in Pittsburgh, nineteen eighteen, and there were I had two thousand cars. I wanted to get that right. So we had six hundred miles of track and two thousand cars in Pittsburgh alone, but you're talking about a system that is nationwide. speaker-0: Aaron And is it too simplistic to say that the rise of the automobile may have led to the demise of trolleys, or is there more to it than that? speaker-1: That's fair. ⁓ people fell in love with the automobile. We have a Model T in our trolley display building for that reason. Scott Becker called it the trolley killer. Maybe a little simplistic in the in the sense that you have to take into some other considerations like the Great Depression and people weren't going anywhere, right? And if you don't have people riding your streetcars, then you're not making money. And so public transportation people lost interest in it. People, you know, after The war in particular, you know, World War II, everybody was starting to get a family automobile, one to be autonomous. So I would say that's probably it. Plus, you have a lot of infrastructure that you have to maintain with streetcars, the overhead wires, the rail. Buses are a lot more convenient. Sure. Not as sustainable, not as clean, but more convenient. I believe though, you know, you do see a lot of, you know, the light rail system in Pittsburgh is still a streetcar. So They're still around as light rail vehicles and cities a lot of cities have wonderful systems and that's that's a really good thing to see and I hope other cities pick up on it and bring it back too. speaker-0: Well you have such an incredible collection of trolleys. How it and it's not stagnant. You've brought new ones in. Tell us about like what is the process to acquire them? Where do you find them from? And then maybe tell us about a new certain black and gold one that you have. speaker-1: ⁓ we have fifty-four trolleys in our collection. And we're very intentional about where we get our trolleys. We want to tell a broad story. You know, we want to show cars as they develop through the ages and the new technology and whatnot. ⁓ we are the Pennsylvania Trollley Museum, so our mission focuses on Pennsylvania. We have a lot of cars from Philadelphia. We do have some cars from Ohio and West Virginia as well, ⁓ the tri-state area. And It's an interesting question how you acquire these things. Originally they may have been purchased before they went to Scrap, ⁓ or donated before they went to Scrap. There, in some instances, you may have had a a trolley museum that had to close the doors and was looking to make sure their collection went into went to good homes. We have a few cars that way. And believe it or not, there are private collectors. And they have trolleys and streetcars, and every now and again. ⁓ and this leads into the story of the terrible trolley. ⁓ they have a car and we're able to get them that way. Also, we have three cars in our collection, four cars in our collection, that were either houses, personal homes, were turned into personal homes, or like vacation cabins. And that's a wonderful thing. We wouldn't have them otherwise. Sure. Yeah. ⁓ the terrible trolley, which is PCC car 1713, is ⁓ a great story because it begins with a little girl in 1979, nine years old, Kim Sever, writing to Mayor Cala Jewel jury in a letter and she calls him a Mr. City promoter. I love that. We have this letter in our archives. ⁓ and she said, Hey, why don't you paint a trolley like the terrible trolley? I think that would be a good idea. And he writes back to her and says, Well, that's not my responsibility. I'll send it over to the Port Authority. see what we can do. And honestly, she sends a letter in December. And on January 18th, the Port Authority rolled out for a pep rally. ⁓ January 18th, 1980, right? Two days before the the Super Bowl win for the Steelers, the terrible trolley, to a crowd of people on Grand Street. Thousands of people went wild. It's a fantastic story. And ⁓ the car ran like in that scheme for probably six years or so. ⁓ it remained in service till 1998 with different paint shops. And then what happens to the car? Well, a private collector in Ohio kept it in his barn for 25 years. And everybody forgot about the terrible trolley. And then Sean Seaman from KDKA called Scott Becker in 2023 and said, What do you know about this terrible trolley? He saw it on the internet. And so Scott talks to him and Relays this conversation to our longtime restoration manager and volunteer Bruce Wells. And Bruce is like, that car exists. It's in Ohio in a barn. And so Scott called Ed Miller, who owned the barn, and we went out and got the car and brought it back and restored it thanks to support from Tourism, which we greatly appreciated. And ⁓ Prime Collision did a beautiful paint job. But the restoration itself was done by our staff. And it took a little over two years, fourteen months, something completely unheard of. Like that's a really quick restoration. And we rolled it out in August of twenty five and it's a f it's really a visitor favorite. And even the people who are not Steeler fans love that car. It's a beautiful car. speaker-0: It has a presence. It does. There's a few other cars I want to talk about. ⁓ but I wanted to mention one of my favorite things about the Trolley Museum is the time period specific advertising in each of the cars. Yes. So neat. Can you talk about it? speaker-1: No, no, thank you for bringing that up. We have in our archives ad cards from each era, as you said. So when you walk into our Cincinnati car, number two two two two seven, which is a beautiful car, you are going to see ad cards from Cincinnati in the era in which the car has been restored to and painted. That is true of all of our cars that are restored. speaker-0: Tell us about a streetcar named Desire. speaker-1: Also a famous car. We've had weddings in that car. This is the streetcar named Desire from the cover of Life magazine when the Tennessee Williams ⁓ Ford came when the when the excuse me, the play came out, Tennessee Williams play came out. And it was on the cover of Life magazine, as I say, that's why it was a particular interest. ⁓ it was being sold for scrap. The entire line down there, the eight hundred desire line, was being sold by New Orleans, and we got it for five bucks. And we brought it up and it was in great condition. We put it right on our track and started running it. I actually came across a photo of my mother and me at the museum. I must be two and a half, maybe, and we're standing in front of the streetcar named Desire. So it's it's a beautiful car. It's ⁓ it's a fan favorite and it operates. speaker-0: Now, one of Pittsburgh's beloved sons, Fred Rogers, has a special connection to the trolley museum. Tell us about the Mr. Rogers trolley. speaker-1: I called him Mr. Rogers Trolley. So there are actually two Mr. Rogers Trolley. Mr. Rogers Productions contacted us in the mid 80s and said, hey, Fred would like to come down and do ⁓ do a show. And he came down and one of our ⁓ volunteer operators, ⁓ Joe Brantner, who is still with ⁓ who is still there, ⁓ operates with us ⁓ still to this day, taught him how to operate, taught him how to operate on a Philadelphia car. But The car that is famous as the Mr. Rogers car that everybody loves that's on display in our trolley display building is 3756, and it's one of the original Pittsburgh cars that came down in 1954, one of the three that were purchased by the f the Founding Fathers. And it's a great shot. Mr. Rogers sits in the well, the stairwell, holding the little neighborhood trolley, and he's looking off into the distance with a smile on his face, very placid, very peaceful. A blow up of that photo was in the original ⁓ Pittsburgh Airport for years and years and years. When they built the new one, they gave it to us. We're fortunate to have it. You can see it as when you come to our museum. And we have a little trolley there so people can recreate that image. speaker-0: Now, beyond preserving historic vehicles, what do you hope visitors take away from their experience at the trolley museum? speaker-1: ⁓ my goodness. I want them to leave with a sense of joy at just having experienced something extremely unique, having learned something, having experienced, you know, nostalgia because, ⁓ I rode this trolley. Or maybe, you know, perceived nostalgia, a young person, like, well, this is something unique and interesting. But I want them just to to walk away, tell their friends how much they loved it, why it's such a unique place, and come visit us again because there's always something going on and something. Things are changing always. speaker-0: Speaking of always things going on, you guys have always done such a great job of having ⁓ events throughout the course of the year, seasonal events. Let's talk about what's coming up in September and October. ⁓ let's see, September twenty fourth and October twenty second. Can you tell us about the brick club? speaker-1: ⁓ my goodness, Brick Club, you we're very fortunate to have Brick Club. ⁓ Brick Club is a homeschool group. It helps teach kids, helps build confidence, communication, how to interact with each other. And it's a partnership with Carnegie Mellon University. And Carnegie Mellon University is the only institute in America that has this club. They work with ⁓ a UK-based group and We are the only non-school brick club. And when they saw what we were doing down there with our education program, ⁓ Jocelyn Farrell is our manager of Steam and Education Programs, does a great job. She does Lego ⁓ summer camps. When they saw that, they they reached out and ⁓ through Remake Learning, ⁓ which re I know we're gonna talk about it, but we got a grant from Remake Learning to become a certified autism center. That's how that connection came about. speaker-0: That's fantastic. Now, during the pandemic we all had to get creative and find new ways to connect with visitors. And you guys did a great job by launching Trolliology, which is coming up September twenty-ninth. Tell us about that program. speaker-1: So, trolleyology, yes, we we wanted to do something to keep people engaged. It started out really with ⁓ online programs about our collection, because you couldn't come to the museum. Let's talk about our collection. Kristen Fredericson, who's now our manager of visitor experience, ⁓ developed these volunteers and other people from other trolley museums and other people with the interest, participate. It has grown. We talk about other systems as well, international systems, systems from other states. We can get a hundred people on on ⁓ on a program. She does it Kristen does these about monthly and the one coming up is about West End trolleys. So I invite you, if you want to hear about the West End trolleys in Pittsburgh, tune in. speaker-0: I believe we mentioned this on an episode two weeks ago when we were talking about fall bucket list items, but one of the favorite fall things in Washington County is the Magic Pumpkin Trolley, which is coming up October ninth through the eleventh and sixteenth through the eighteenth. Yes. Tell us about that event. speaker-1: Magic pumpkin and trolley is special because when you visit and you get your ticket to ride a trolley, you will get a magic pumpkin seed that we've created. And you will take a ride and go down to our magic pumpkin patch and plant your magic pumpkin seed. And you'll continue on your ride. And when you come back, I guarantee you a magic pumpkin will have grown. So speaker-0: We're speaker-1: Everybody has to go and and and yes, you can take your pumpkin home then, decorate it. ⁓ we have crafts, we have beverages and and refreshments, and again, riding those beautiful trolleys all day long. So Magic Pumpkin is a special time. speaker-0: And I know you have sensory friendly ⁓ hours specifically for that event, but also throughout the course of the year. Tell us about that. speaker-1: Right. So I did mention we became a certified autism center. We are the only certified autism center as designated by the IBC CES, which is the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards. In all of Western Pennsylvania, we got this designation in in twenty twenty three. I'm very proud that we have this because part of that meant that eighty percent of our public facing paid and volunteer staff did training. Eighty percent. And we have over 200 volunteers. So we have that. We have people who can help out in a situation where you know it's maybe a parent or l is struggling. We have a a quiet space for for people just to to hang out in. ⁓ we have a little kits that parents can backpacks that can ⁓ parents can check out with noise canceling headphones, fishing toys, et cetera. And so we try to have at least twice a month. Sensory friendly hours where we run quieter trolleys 'cause they can be noisy. And we turn down the lights, turn down the sounds in the building, and we do that for three or four hours. And then we'll do the same thing with Magic Pumpkin and then we'll also have sensory Santa sessions as well. speaker-0: Now for the little tikes, the age two to five you have trolley tots coming up ⁓ October sixteenth through the seventeenth and wait, October fifteenth, my fault. tell us about that program. speaker-1: So Charlie Tots is something we developed for ⁓ taughts two to five years old and we thought, well what this this seems to be an age group that we can do more with. And it was developed by a number of different ⁓ members of staff from different departments and it focuses on different modes of transportation because we've done fire trucks and RVs and school buses and the kids love it. They we read a story to them, they do an activity, they do a craft, they they can touch the the vehicles. Last month it was excavators, the kids loved it. ⁓ In October, believe it or not, it's gonna be helicopters. And that quickly sells out. So speaker-0: ⁓ interesting. Yeah. Well you've got a couple of Halloweeny kinda themey ⁓ events coming up. Trolley Tales of Terror, which I believe is sold out. speaker-1: It is. It is. It's the second year sold out. ⁓ all I can tell people is that please look for tickets next August. We had two days quickly sold out out of the third and it sold out. And that's just kind of a it's not a scare house or anything, you know, anything like that. It's just a spooky time at the museum where you hear spooky stories that are based in fact. Morgan Meir, who works in our visitor services, has done a a remarkable job with that program and she writes the stories. And the ⁓ community theater is coming out to help us tell those stories. And it's just it'll be at night. It'll be great. Yeah. speaker-0: ⁓ you also have trick or trolley which is October twenty fourth and fifth. Yes. And I'm assuming that's a good place to bring your kids. speaker-1: Yes, especially candy. Yes. It's it's free for kids actually thanks to ⁓ EQT. And I also want to thank LB Foster for helping us with pumpkin trolley. But yeah, free for kids. Bring them out, get dressed up. They can ⁓ trick or treat in our trolley display building. We'll have community ⁓ partners there with their tables passing out candy and have face painting, balloons. It's a lot of fun. speaker-0: Now one of your most popular events each year is Santa Trolley and it kicks off in November. I'm not gonna name the dates because there's so many of them, but beginning ⁓ October or sorry, November twenty seventh and then kind of wrapping up on the twentieth, check out the the website for the specific dates, but tell us about Santa Trolley and why it's become so popular. speaker-1: Santa trolley has always been one of our most popular events, even at the old space. And it's who can resist ⁓ an afternoon or a morning with ⁓ the jolly old elf himself. And kids, adults of all ages, kids of all ages ride the trolley and have a visit with Santa and have some Huaiko, do a craft. It's it's a tremendous time for families. We have a lot of families who come back every year on the same date with extended families. It does sell out. I I would encourage pre ⁓ purchasing tickets when they go on sale. And like I mentioned before, ⁓ we will have sensory sanitimes ⁓ during this event as well for those people who have sensitivities and ⁓ we couldn't do that without our friends at Washington Financial. speaker-0: Aaron Speaking of Washington Financial, you've had so many other generous sponsors who have opened up the possibility for kids to come to the Trolley Museum for free, including as we're winding down September, throughout the month of September, kids ages zero to seventeen get in free. but this isn't the first time you've done this. Talk about some of those other sponsors and ⁓ you know months that you've had this this option available for kids. speaker-1: I think at the core of that is wanting to give back to the community. The community has been so kind, so supportive of the museum. The community built the museum. We want to give back to the community. And we've had really great partners in helping us do that. We've had three months of ⁓ free kids this year. ⁓ that's been tremendous. In s in February, we had Alex Paris sponsor the event. In May, Dollar Bank Foundation. And now in September, and yes, this is the last weekend coming up Thursday, Friday, Saturday, please come. ⁓ the Velma Jefferies Youth Activities Trust has made this possible now for two years. We know times are tough. We know that large families ⁓ aren't able to do what they could do, you know, a couple years ago. We want to make it possible for them to bring their kids to the museum to experience the history. It's so important for for everyone to understand history in general, but transportation. history in particular I think is really speaker-0: So as we look towards the balance of the rest of the year, tell us about one, where's the best place to find information about the Charlie Museum and two, your hours as we go into the winter months. speaker-1: PHolly.org. Everything is there. We also have a great presence on social media, Facebook, Instagram. We are on X, LinkedIn, Snapchat. And we are open now. ⁓ I call it the off season, but ⁓ September through May, we are open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 10 to 4. Unless it's a special event, please check ours for that. speaker-0: Janine, I can't thank you enough for joining us today. Thank you. I hope to see you all at the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum here in October. Come to the Magic Pumpkin Trolley. Get yourself a pumpkin seed. Thank you, Janine. Thank We'll see you next week on the Washco Insider. speaker-1: Wow.