Have you ever wished that you lived in a castle, or at least in a mansion, surrounded by an extensive garden? Well, you can enjoy the fantasy, meet new friends and do your good deed for the season.

Planting Fields Arboretum is looking for the few new guides to give tours of the mansion and some to give tours of the grounds. They will be offering training classes in the middle of March. For more information, call Katherine Sterner who is in charge of the volunteers at (516) 922-8674. You can volunteer one afternoon a week on the day of your choice.

Two Garden City residents have been volunteering for a number of years. Muriel Urban has been a docent in Coe Hall (the mansion) and also does a tour around the outside of the mansion, relating the landscape to architecture of the house for the past 24 years. Her husband Al has done outdoor tours of the grounds for both adults and school groups. The work is easy, fun and interesting as you learn a lot about plants, trees and life on the Gold Coast.