Jan Cassell

When Jan Cassell clocks out, that’s when her real work begins.

Cassell is a staff member and a volunteer at the gift and book shop

at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum. She gets paid for about 12

hours and then she volunteers up to 24 each week, working to make the

gift shop a gem to rival the museum itself.

“It’s my duty to work in the gift shop, purchase everything, help

keep it clean along with other helpers,” said Cassell, a 12-year

cancer survivor and the widow of Al Cassell.

A retired interior decorator with lots of merchandizing and retail

experience, Cassell took the job at the museum earlier this year to

help keep busy. Almost immediately, she launched a redesign of the

gift shop.

“I just spiffed everything up and changed the lighting and

increased the variety of merchandise here,” Cassell said. “Then I

brought in the books -- big time. I believe museums should have

books.”

Besides books, perhaps the most popular nautical-themed items in

the shop are boxes -- any kind of boxes small enough to sit on a

table or desktop and hold the smaller necessities of life.

“Leather little trunks, nice beautiful wooden boxes, some

imprinted with maps on them,” she said. “Boxes are big.”

But, like a lot of volunteer jobs, not all the work is this

glamorous. Along with other volunteers, Cassell is also responsible

for cleaning, answering phones and other duties that simply must get

done.

Cassell moved back to her hometown of Newport Beach after about 10

years in Mammoth.

“My kids and grandkids are here. I raised my family here. This is

home,” said Cassell, a mother of three grown sons and a grandmother

of three.

And, an added perk of her volunteer job, her youngest son is often

just a stone’s throw away. Carter Cassell, 26, was just promoted to

first mate on the tall ship Lynx, which has spent a lot of time at

the museum in the last year.

“We’re a sailing family. This is a sailing community,” said

Cassell, whose skipper credits include the 1981 TransPac race. “So

for me, this is such a good place to volunteer. Actually, for

anybody, this is a good place to volunteer.”

Story by June Casagrande,

photo by Don Leach