January, 2008
IN THIS MONTH'S ISSUE:
Call for Volunteers - Make a Difference, Starting at Home - The "Green" Issue - Presidential Anecdotes
MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN NEW ORLEANS
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This Month's Resource Highlight: This Month's Partner Resource: |
Volunteers pay their own travel expenses to reach New Orleans and a $200 participation fee to cover housing and food for the week. Daily transportation to and from the work site will be provided by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Housing is dormitory-style and a typical workday is 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. During the week, National Trust staff will also offer a special opportunity to explore the unique preservation story that is New Orleans, as well as discuss some of the ongoing work of the field office currently located there.
Not available those three specific weeks? Consider volunteering with RTNO independent of the National Trust.
LOCAL ACTION MAKES A BIG IMPACT!
Sometimes the biggest challenges can be completed by taking small steps. For example: change the world. Sound like a colossal task? It's easy. Start at Home.
When HGTV launched the Change the World. Start at Home campaign, their goal was to tackle projects all over the country by working with the National Trust for Historic Preservation and other partners to engage volunteers in their own communities; to change the world by starting with the everyday places we all call home.
As a first step, we worked with HGTV and Rebuilding Together to identify worthy projects in ten cities. Then HGTV encouraged the public to weigh in and select the final projects. On January 1st, HGTV announced the winning neighborhoods during their live TV coverage of the Rose Bowl Parade.
The five cities that won this first year's national voting competition are:
- Baltimore, MD
- Denver, CO
- New Orleans, LA
- Twin Cities, MN
- Washington, DC
National Trust staff spend the day volunteering on Ms. Ethel Gaither's home with HGTV celebrity Taniya Nayak during Change the World, Start at Home week.
Credit: Joelle Schatz
Each city's three projects will be kicked off this April with the help of numerous volunteers and HGTV celebrities. Neighborhood projects that did not win the public vote will also receive sustained support from HGTV and local volunteers.
Want to learn more about volunteering at these events or other community activities in your area?? Visit HGTV's Change the World. Start at Home. website.
GREEN MEANS PRESERVING, NOT DESTROYING
With "green building" all the rage, Americans are beginning to realize what preservationists have long known: contrary to much of the hype around sustainable design and construction, the "greenest" building is often one that has already been built.
When he was honored with the National Building Museum's prestigious 2007 Vincent Scully Prize last month, National Trust President Richard Moe used the opportunity to hammer home that point, using his address to make the case for historic preservation's "essential role" in fighting climate change. "We can't build our way out of our environmental problems. We have to conserve our way out. That means we have to make better, wiser use of what we've already built." His speech included statistics that illustrated the breadth of this issue and new sustainability initiatives for the National Trust.
Expanding on Mr. Moe's speech, the January/February 2008 edition of the National Trust's Preservation magazine is titled "The Green Issue." Covering many timely topics such as the cost of overlooking old buildings in favor of new ones, tips for an environmentally friendly home, and a look at sustainable architecture at work in Chicago, the issue is available in print and online. We encourage you to share this with your friends and community to expand your knowledge of the benefits of preserving and reusing existing buildings, and its impact on our communities.
PRESIDENTIAL SUITES
Presidential primaries fill the headlines and President's Day fast approaches. Our presidents (and would-be presidents) travels have taken them all across the country and they stayed in many of our Historic Hotels of America along the way. You can follow in the footsteps of our nation's leaders with Historic Hotels of America's collection of anecdotes about the U.S. presidents (and would-be presidents) who have been guests at our hotels over the centuries.
