From left, Geoff Ladd of Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County; Ron Keller, curator of Lincoln Heritage Museum at Lincoln College; Sarah Watson, Executive Director of the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition; and Barbara Stroud-Borth, Secretary of the Mt. Pulaski Courthouse Foundation. Photo provided by Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition.
March 22, 2013,  LOGAN COUNTY - On March 20th, 2013, The Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County/Logan County Looking for Lincoln Committee, Lincoln Heritage Museum of Lincoln College, and the Mt. Pulaski Courthouse Foundation were awarded $1500 each as part of The Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition/Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area 2012 Partnership Grant Program.

The Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County/Logan County Looking for Lincoln Committee was selected for a partnership grant for Abraham Lincoln’s Geocaching Trail in Logan County. Geocaches will be placed at Abraham Lincoln attractions throughout the county, which will draw awareness to these great sites. Rack cards will advertise the new trail.

Visitors can check out a GPS unit from the bureau. Plastic tokens in the caches can be redeemed for special geocaching postcards.

The Lincoln Heritage Museum of Lincoln College is using the grant for a new living history program that will have several component aims. These will include the research, development, and performance of living history dramas, vignettes, and monologues.

Students from the history, English, and fine arts departments will work with the Lincoln Heritage Museum staff to research individuals, read written historical accounts, and analyze historic documents and material objects in the museum to develop and prepare scripts. When the new Lincoln Heritage Museum opens in the fall of 2013, they will schedule special performance times which will be open to the public. Also included will be the formation of a college class, open to students and eventually to the community on how to perform living history, and the training of performers for certification.

The Mt. Pulaski Courthouse Foundation was selected for a partnership grant to install improved humidity control for the historic courthouse, sponsor a work week with various projects, and a final celebration. A Street Fest on June 28 will celebrate the end of the work week with food, music, children's games and Abraham and Mary Lincoln on the street in front of the Courthouse.

“It is a privilege for us to provide funding to our partner organizations and communities throughout the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area. Thanks to funding we received from the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, we were able to make these grants available.” said Sarah Watson, Executive Director of the Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition.

Funds for all projects will be used for educational programs, interpretation, displays, event programming, or interpretive signage. Projects demonstrated how they will help preserve and interpret area’s local or regional stories and their significance to the nation and the world; additional consideration was given for cultural, ethnic, arts and recreation programs in line with the area’s Lincoln focus.

All of the awarded grants are for projects that are physically located in at least one of the 42 designated Illinois counties within the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area: Adams, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Champaign, Christian, Clark, Coles, Cumberland, Dewitt, Douglas, Edgar, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Hancock, Henderson, Jersey, Knox, LaSalle, Logan, Macon, Macoupin, Madison, Mason, McDonough, McLean, Menard, Montgomery, Morgan, Moultrie, Peoria, Piatt, Pike, Sangamon, Schuyler, Scott, Shelby, Tazewell, Vermillion, Warren and Woodford.

Support for The Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area 2012 Partnership Grant, was made possible thanks to the generous support of The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation, dedicated to perpetuating and expanding Lincoln’s vision for America and completing America’s unfinished work and the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area.

The Looking for Lincoln Heritage Coalition is a not for profit organization dedicated to working collaboratively with local, state, and national partners across the Abraham Lincoln National Heritage Area to tell the quality stories of Abraham Lincoln's life and times to provide high quality experiences for visitors, economic opportunities for communities and to improve the quality of life for residents.