VERNON TOWNSHIP HISTORICAL SOCIETY RECEIVES

VERNON, September 16, 2008— HISTORY™ today awarded the Vernon Township Historical a $10,000 Save Our History grant to partner with Glen Meadow Middle School for a project entitled “Bringing the Past to the Present: Teaching About the Lenape Through the Black Creek Site,” an educational program.

The Vernon Township Historical Society's objective in this grant project is to introduce the history and culture of the Lenni Lenape that has been revealed through the archaeology of the Black Creek Site to the members of our community.

Thousands of artifacts from 8500 BC to 1700 AD were found at the Black Creek Site in Vernon telling a compelling story of 500 generations of human history during the Great North American Stone Age. For 10,000 years, this land was home to a series of Native American hunting and fishing camps, but as the Lenni Lenape had contact with Europeans, their population was decimated. In the 1700s, the surviving Lenape were forced to abandon the region. For the next 200 years, Black Creek was forgotten and lost. The Black Creek Site was rediscovered in the late 1990s and nominated in 2001 for the New Jersey and National Registers of Historic Places, drawing national attention to the site. In 2004, the Black Creek Site brought together Lenape from throughout the United States and Canada for the first time in 300 years, calling their meeting a "homecoming." Last year, the Historical Society held the grand opening of the site, and through this project would now like to educate our students and community about its cultural and historical significance. The Society’s project is important because the Black Creek Site has yielded and will continue to yield information important in prehistory or history. Specifically, the Society’s goals with the grant are as follows:

• To teach those students who live in Vernon, New Jersey today about those who inhabited this land as early as 10,000 years ago

• To develop in our students an appreciation and respect for the culture and history of the Lenni Lenape

• To prepare portable museum quality display cases with the archaeological artifacts uncovered at the Black Creek Site to be used as instructional tools throughout the school district

• To use photographs of the various stages of archaeology at the Black Creek Site in an educational power point presentation to document the site's history

• To record interviews with members of the Lenni Lenape tribe on video so that students can better understand the feelings, beliefs, traditions and history of these Native Americans through the words of their descendants

• To prepare the physical Black Creek Site with maps, trail markers, signage, and an outdoor classroom area to enable teachers to bring students onsite for educational field trips

• To provide Vernon's elementary, middle and high school teachers with sufficient background information about the history of the Black Creek Site that can be adapted and applied to their specific grades and curriculum

• To reach out to residents of Vernon Township and visitors to the Black Creek Site with informational maps, brochures, and presentations to community groups

Glen Meadow Middle School will work in conjunction with Grade 8 history, geology, technology, photography, language arts teachers to enlist volunteers from their classes to assist the Vernon Township Historical Society in creating the various resources described in the grant objectives. The students' participation in the project will result in a personal ownership of the Black Creek Site that could lead to their continued stewardship in the future.

The Vernon Township Historical Society is one of eleven history organizations nationwide that received Save Our History community preservation grants. These grants fund innovative preservation projects designed to bring communities together, actively engage children in the preservation of their local history, and communicate the importance of saving local history for future generations.

HISTORY, with the counsel of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA) and American Association of State and Local History (AASLH), created the Save Our History Grant Program as an extension of the Save Our History philanthropic initiative. HISTORY is committed to inspiring and motivating local communities to learn about and take an active role in the preservation of their past through projects involving artifacts, oral histories, sites, museums or landmarks that exist in their own neighborhoods. In five years, 2,445 historic organizations, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia have applied for funding through the Save Our History Grant Program.

In addition to this project, HISTORY is also awarding Save Our History grants to historic organizations in California, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

“History receives stacks of applications for Save Our History grants,” said Dr. Libby O’Connell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Outreach and Chief Historian, History. “The Vernon Historical Society demonstrated the creativity and commitment to preservation and education that we believe is fundamental to giving our past a bright future. Building partnerships within the community is key to achieving long term preservation goals.”

Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors is an independent, nonprofit service that helps donors to create thoughtful, effective philanthropy throughout the world. RPA provides research and counsel on charitable giving, develops philanthropic programs, and offers complete program, administrative and management services for foundations and trusts. In 2006, RPA advised on and managed more than $150 million in annual giving in more than 30 countries. For more information visit www.rockpa.org.

About AASLH

AASLH was born in 1904 as a part of the American Historical Association. Over one hundred years later, AASLH is the only national association dedicated to the people and organizations that practice state and local history in order to make the past more meaningful to all Americans. These history organizations are American leaders in preserving, researching, and interpreting traces of the past to connect the people, thoughts, and events of yesterday with the creative memories and abiding concerns of people, communities, and our nation today. History organizations are foremost education institutions, and they excel in creating the enlightened, engaged citizenry that the founders envisioned. From its headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee, AASLH provides a variety of programs and services, as well as leadership in the national arena.

About Save Our History Educational Materials
History™, in collaboration with leading educators from the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), developed a comprehensive Educator’s Manual containing standards-based lesson plans, enrichment activities, and resources that help elementary, middle and high school teachers connect American History content to their local history. The manual guides teachers to engage students in hands-on, experiential preservation projects. The Educator’s Manual is supplemented by Save Our History lesson plans available to educators who register online to receive them at www.saveourhistory.com. To date, more than 60,000 educators at schools, youth groups, history museums, and historic sites have used the educational materials to teach over 1.8 million students about their local history and the importance of preserving it.

About Save Our History