Behind the Scenes: A Very Busy First Week

My name is Siena McLachlan. I’m this summer’s Special Events Assistant/Interpretive Guide at Banting House NHSC. This is my first blog – I’ll be writing over the course of the summer to tell you about my experiences at the museum, and I have to say, this week was a baptism of fire!

Today I feel relaxed. Today, I feel calm. Today, is the first day I have worked at Banting House National Historic Site of Canada and haven’t been swept up in a cyclone of activity.

I just started working here last week and to be honest, I thought this job would be full of sleepy office days, waiting for the odd Londoner to wander in for a tour.

After this past week, my memories are a jumbled mess of excitement, more excitement, and learning about Banting House NHSC (oh… so much learning). Through all that mess, it’s difficult to pinpoint when I realized that sleepy office days were not the case. It might’ve been when I watched Grant Maltman give a 44 person tour to a group of teachers from Colombia (they gave me a bag of Colombian ground coffee – much needed). Or, maybe it was while we transformed the entire garden into a series of tents full of food, drink, artists and their art, for Banting & Friends VI, which turned out to be a well-attended, inspiring, and busy event.

In any case, I definitely learned how well-known Banting House NHSC is outside of London when we had several visits from people on their way to an endocrinology conference in Chicago; they took the long route to stop here along the way. One doctor came all the way from Japan!

Above all, through the speeches made at Banting & Friends VI, the volunteers I’ve met, and the visitors I’ve talked to, I’ve come to realize what an inspiration Sir Dr. Frederick Banting is to people, and what it means to them to be in his house. I already thought this would be a fun job, getting to talk to people all day, to teach them. Now, I’m proud to be here too.

This blog was written by Siena McLachlan, Special Events Assistant/Interpretive Guide at Banting House NHSC. Siena specializes in English Literature and Creative Writing at Western University.