THE smile does not leave Melissa Adam’s face when she enters the Millicent National Trust Living History Museum for a day’s work.
In fact, the 25 year old enjoys working at the museum so much, she often volunteers there outside of her rostered hours.
Melissa lives with an intellectual disability and until last year found it hard to find regular work she considered challenging and rewarding.
This changed when the Millicent resident connected with WISE employment, an agency which sources work for people living with disabilities and was given the opportunity to work with the museum.
Millicent Museum supervisor and chairman Barry Long said he was approached by the agency to hire Melissa on a six-month term, however he decided to extend her employment last year as she had become an integral part of the team.
Since then, Melissa has continued to leave her mark on the museum and taken on a number of projects and challenges with great determination.
One of the most recent projects she has worked on has involved building shelves to store almost 500 shoes from the Helen Hughes costume collection.
She has also completed guttering, renovations on the old school ramp and exterior ramp, shelving in the office and general maintenance jobs.
Melissa said working at the museum was about more than money as she learnt new skills and developed friendships.
In recent months, museum volunteers have rebuilt and restored a number of structures for the National Trust, including Willunga’s baker’s cart, the Millicent Museum’s Opie’s bread cart and a market gardener’s trolley.
Mr Long said the team had worked with Kingston to restore the trolley, which was used by a Chinese family to cart vegetables from Dartmoor to Mount Gambier.
They have also been rebuilding the museum’s iconic windmill after it was damaged during strong winds and expect it to be completed this year.
Around 15 men and women currently volunteer their time at the Millicent site each week.
