Celebrate Dunbar! Partners
Arts Center Foundation
Central State University
Dayton Assn. for the Study of
African American Life & History
Dayton Aviation Heritage
National Historical Park
Dayton Contemporary
Dance Company
Dayton Opera Association
Doris L. Allen Minority Caucus of
the Dayton Educ. Assn.
Dream Keeper Theatre Company
Dunbar House
Ebonnia Gallery
Muse Machine
National Afro-American Museum
and Cultural Center
Paul Laurence Dunbar
High School
Reggie Evans, composer
Sinclair Community College
University of Dayton
Victoria Theatre Association
Wright Dunbar Inc.
Wright State University
(July 31, 2006)
SHARE THE AFRICAN AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
PROGRAM GRANT GIVEN TO DAYTON'S NATIONAL PARK
Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park was awarded a Share the African American Experience Program grant by the African American Experience Fund of the National Park Foundation. The grant is for a total of $15,000 for the Experience Dunbar project. This grant program is designed to support the efforts of National Park sites that preserve and interpret the African American experience to build and increase awareness through volunteer projects. Ultimately, through programs like this one, the African American Experience Fund seeks to connect Americans from all walks of life to the considerable contributions of African Americans throughout our country’s history.
The Experience Dunbar project is an intergenerational volunteer program. Park Superintendent, Lawrence Blake, noted, “This is a great opportunity for partners to work together with the community in enhancing educational programming offered at the park. This grant creates a chance to bring Dunbar’s works to life.”
The program will recruit and train senior citizens from the local community as volunteers at the Dunbar House. These volunteers will work with local fourth graders to increase their awareness and understanding of Dayton’s poet laureate. Dunbar was the first African American to be widely accepted within literary fields in the United States and Europe. His remarkable legacy is preserved at the Paul Laurence Dunbar House. “We appreciate the opportunity to work with the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical park and the African American Experience Fund to bring the story of Dunbar to a wider audience, using the rich resources of the people of our community to interpret this important time in history,” stated LaVerne Sci, Historic Site Manager of the Dunbar House.
Anyone who is interested in volunteering for the Experience Dunbar program should contact Mrs. Sci, at the Paul Laurence Dunbar House, (937) 224-7061. The Dunbar House is one of the 60 sites statewide operated by the Ohio Historical Society and is a unit of Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.
The mission of the African American Experience Fund of the National Park Foundation is to connect Americans from all walks of life to the considerable contributions of African Americans throughout our country’s history by raising private funds to support educational, volunteer and community-engagement programs in National Parks and Historic Sites that celebrate and tell the story of American history and culture. The National Park Foundation, chartered by Congress in 1967, is the national charitable partner of America’s National Parks.
This project was made possible in part by a grant from the African American Experience Fund of the National Park Foundation through the generous support of the UPS Foundation.
