Sam McKinney
Graduated from Bloomsburg State College with a B.A. in English Literature in 1975. Worked in modern masonry doing brick and stone for 8 years. In 1983, he started his own residential restoration business, specializing in buildings constructed before 1850. He has since been responsible for restoring many early Central Pennsylvania structures, the most notable being the Dills Tavern building. He is the Director of Restoration for Dills Tavern and is responsible for setting up the preservation classes at the Tavern. His preservation education came from attending summer classes at Eastfield Village for over 20 years.
Kevin Ricker
Kevin attended Shippensburg University and went on to study at the Ohio Institute of Photography. Later, in the 1980’s, he joined a crew here in Central Pennsylvania that became well known for dismantling and rebuilding early frame and log structures. He then started his own business locally selling early buildings and the associated materials used in their restoration. His years of working with many types of early buildings, has given him a unique knowledge of the methods and materials used in their construction. Kevin helped with all of the Dill Tavern restoration and is Assistant Director of Restoration at Dills Tavern.
Linda Zeigler
Food historian, Linda Zeigler, has 25 years experience with hearth cooking, bake ovens, and historic foodways. She has demonstrated and interpreted at many central Pennsylvania museums. Linda and her husband live on a small farm in Cumberland Co., where they raise Milking Devon cattle, heritage breed chickens, and a variety of grain, including wheat and rye for flour.
Arthur Bert
A graduate of Long Beach State University, Art has studied and collected various forms of Pennsylvania folk art since moving to the area in 1970. He and his wife Donna, took their first workshop in weaving rye straw baskets almost 30 years ago. The instructor of that work shop, was Ned Foltz, well known potter and folk artist in Lebanon County. The Berts have spent 12 years doing an award winning restoration of the Clear Springs Mill complex, south of Dillsburg. This project involved restoring a large 19th Century grist mill, an 1809 saw mill, and moving a log house to the site. Art now works as a restoration carpenter on historic homes and structures.
Donna Bert
Donna graduated from Chapman College with a degree in education. She moved to Pennsylvania in 1970, where she began raising sheep on a small farm in York County. All the steps of wool processing, spinning, dyeing, and weaving, have been a part of her life since then. Donna has developed and led textile workshops and participated in sheep-to-shawl competitions.
