Roxbury secures Preserve America funds to extend heritage tourism year round
Roxbury's heritage tourism programs have once again garnered
Preserve America grant dollars to bring added economic stimulus to its educational
and historic tourism activities throughout the year.
"Roxbury in the Gilded Age" was awarded more than $66,000 to augment and market successful summertime heritage tourism programs like "Railride into Yesteryear" and "Turn of the Century Days." In addition, Roxbury will be able to undertake historically-enriched events in October and during the holiday season.
"The wonderful thing about these Preserve America tourism grants is
that every cent stays in our community," noted Director of Parks Peg
Ellsworth. "This funding allows us to train and employ even more student
docents, for example, who are not only earning but also learning valuable
skills 
and knowledge for their future. It gives them a seminal opportunity
to work with scholars and other talented professionals. And it allows us
to employ strong local talent in crafts, trades, teaching, writing, multimedia
and community outreach all summer and now beyond."
The grant opportunity was restricted to communities and neighborhoods that have earned "Preserve America" designation. Nevertheless, the federal grant process remains fiercely competitive, with only four programs in New York State getting the nod in this round. Nationwide, 43 Preserve America projects were funded with a total of $2.9 million (which makes Roxbury's award of $66,750 an average award). To qualify, projects had to illustrate how they would use historic assets effectively in planning, research, education and interpretation, training, or marketing. Preserve America funds are not used for "bricks and mortar" capital projects, which are covered under other federal and state programs.
"Roxbury in the Gilded Age" project falls under the category of marketing, but it has an equally strong educational and interpretation component. "We like to see the young people in the community learn about their history, their town, with these projects," said Roxbury Supervisor Tom Hynes, "It helps us build something that will maybe keep some of these young people here in the future."
The project will offer strong collaborations with DURR, Roxbury Central
School, Roxbury
businesses and cultural organizations, as well as area university
scholars. In addition to enhanced historical research for its annual "Ghost
Tours," Roxbury will introduce a new winter heritage tourism event, "Holidays
of the Gilded Age."
"One of the new marketing projects will be the creation of a DVD which showcases our summer and fall heritage tourism programs, to be used in all sorts of promotion, from schools to businesses to press outlets downstate," said Ellsworth, adding "We hope that making a DVD will unite our students' enthusiasm for modern technology with pride in their hometown. That would give a whole new meaning to MySpace."
Interested in learning more about being part of Roxbury's heritage tourism projects? Contact the Roxbury Parks Department at 607-326-3722 or learn more at www.roxburyny.com.