Glenwood Herald

The Department of Arkansas Heritage has awarded a $2,720 grant to the Pike County Archives and History Society (PCAHS) for its efforts to preserve local heritage and political history.

The grants were funded as part of the annual Arkansas Heritage Month observance.  Heritage month grants are supported each year with $50,000 for the Amendment 75 conservation tax fund.  Nineteen other organizations around the state also received grant funds.

“Arkansas’s unique heritage is reflected by the efforts of all our grant recipients to preserve their local history through events, programs and exhibits both during the Heritage Month and throughout the year,” said Cathie Matthews, director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.  This year’s Heritage Month theme is Arkansas’s Political Heritage: The People Rule.

Pike County’s project is a student research project and exhibit to increase public awareness of the area’s political heritage, encourage student involvement and appreciations of the county’s past political leaders, and motivate citizens to vote and take part in the political process.

All four county schools will be invited to participate in the project which will consist of collecting photos of the political figures from county level office and higher.  The students will research and develop a short narrative to accompany the photo.  The PCAHS will duplicate the photos and have them professionally mounted for a countywide display in the Pike County Courthouse during the primary election week in May.  The members of the PCAHS will visit each school to assist students with research sources and techniques.  After the display event the collection will be preserved in the PCAHS.

Each school will also be invited to send a busload of students to the State Capitol for a personal tour conducted by State Representative Randy Stewart, who developed the idea for the grant.  The grant will reimburse the school for the fuel for the field trip.  Rep. Stewart is also providing a savings bond for the best submission from each school as judged by the PCAHS. 

Letters will be mailed this week to the superintendents and principals of each of the county’s schools detailing the grant project and for coordination of the field trip to the capitol.  For additional information please contact the PCAHS at 870-285-9157 or .

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