Amador Chapter of California Questers Pursues Historic Preservation, Renovation in Tri-Valley

By Jay Hipps, Hacienda Network Staff Writer

The Tri-Valley has a great variety of historical resources. One of the groups that is looking after their continued management is the Amador Chapter of the California Questers, a non-profit organization dedicated to the study, conservation, and presentation of historical objects.

"We are into preservation and restoration of old buildings, monuments, plaques, anything that reflects history, because we want children, especially, to know how things were," says Rickie Friedli/Giono, Amador Chapter president.

The Amador Chapter was founded in 1984 and has a long list of accomplishments in the area. "We donated a whole room of furniture to the Ravenswood Historic Site in Livermore in the early 1990's, we helped restore a fire truck that's now stored at the Duarte Garage Museum in Livermore, we've helped the Alviso Adobe and Pleasanton Museum in the past, and we donated a farm table to the Dublin Heritage Guild," says Friedli/Giono. The chapter is currently working to aid in the restoration of Midway School, the last one-room schoolhouse in Livermore.

"We don't do the work but we raise money for them," says Friedli/Giono. To that end, the group is currently selling small bags of frankincense and myrrh as holiday gifts, one of a number of fundraising efforts the group undertakes.

Statewide, the Questers are working on the restoration of the old governor's mansion in Sacramento. "We've replaced some of the missing sterling, we've fixed the billiard table, we got a cue stick rack that's all from the Victorian era... We work along with the governor's staff to help with that," she says. "We also maintain the Pioneer Mother statue in Golden Gate Park, which is the only statue of a woman in Golden Gate Park."

The Amador Chapter meets each month from September through May at 9:30 am on the fourth Thursday of the month, beginning with a social and concluding with lunch. "Because we're all antiques collectors or are interested in antiques, each of our meetings has a program where someone will present one of their collections and tell the history of it," says Friedli/Giono. "We also do field trips where we go to antique stores and we might have a speaker who tells us about a collection that they have. We want to preserve history, preserve old things - but we're also a fun group."

Local members are also invited to attend state-wide meetings which occur in the spring and fall, with the next meeting scheduled for Paso Robles. Chapters throughout the U.S. and Canada hold an annual meeting as well, with the next one scheduled for May, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa.

For additional information on the Amador Chapter of the California Questers, contact Rickie Friedli/Giono at (925) 292-8123 or via e-mail at rjfgiono@comcast.net. The California Questers web site can be found at www.calquest.org. The site for the umbrella organization is at questers1944.org.

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