Happy New Year!
Last year, I didn’t do such a great job posting on the blog or on social media. This year, I plan to do better.
In 2022, we made big changes to the Hip History Contest, which included adding rubrics to focus student entries. As a result, most of our winning entries went a little deeper and, surprisingly, included humor. I can’t wait to share them with you in the next couple of weeks. We also added a matching prize for schools. So each winner’s designated teacher also won money to use in their classroom. We’ve pushed out the date for the 2023 contest to the Fall to allow more teachers to fit it into their lessons so more students can participate.
Our second year of the History Book Club was a success. Our monthly group discussions have been lively, on topic, and educational and participants enjoyed the books. The 2023 schedule should be up by 1/9/23 and we’ve got some great changes in the works.
We also had our first in-person fundraiser. “Celebrating Buxton” was a joint fundraiser with the Nelson Pioneer Farm. It included a Buxton puppet show, soul food meal by Second Baptist Church of Ottumwa, vintage baseball pick-up game between the “Buxton Wonders” and Living History Farm’s team, the Walnut Hill Bluestockings, plus a history tour. Details, including the amount raised, will be shared later this month.
This is just some of the news from last year and what’s coming in 2023. Make sure you sign-up for our newsletter so you’ll get it all!