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Volume 4, No. 12: December 2007, from Michael Bouman, Executive Director

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On Family Reading, monthly column from Julie Douglas
Julie photo One of These Days: Writing Letters With Children Why write only to Santa? This month I tell you about how writing a letter helps a child develop a knack for unfolding a story.
Exhibits for Schools and Libraries

After 18 months of touring, the Sac and Fox Heritage Exhibit has been refurbished and readied for more touring to small venues. It is 10 feet wide and 8 feet tall, and it has its own built-in lighting. It is ideal for libraries or small museums. Contact me, Michael Bouman, about booking it at your museum, school, or public library in 2008.

A touring exhibit on Osage Heritage is also in production for the same venues.

ReadMOre Dave Barry!

ReadMOre is a statewide initiative of local libraries to involve people annually in reading the same book.

Get ready to laugh. In 2008 we're going to read The Starcatchers Trilogy by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson.

We've just spruced up the ReadMOre web space to add more interactive features and much more fun. Take a look!

On-Line Interpretive Training Resource
I've been following the progress of the Missouri-Kansas partnership to develop a "Freedom's Frontier National Heritage Area." The group just sent out a great link to a web site for the National Park Service and "Tourism Professionals." Forget the "professional" part; even if you're an untrained volunteer, your business is interpretation, and the only question is whether you're developing your talent. Here's a place to investigate!
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The Bosnian Faces of Catastrophe
Image of exhibit ribbon-cuttingWhat if you'd been born in a place of death? What if you grew up not knowing why you hated yourself? These are a part of the human experience in a remarkable Missouri community of 50,000 Bosnian refugees. The people from the city of Prijedor told their stories in an oral history and exhibit project we supported last year. The exhibit opened at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center on November 25 with a crowd of many hundreds of people. You can see the exhibit for yourself through May of 2008. More on this moving event in an illustrated story Prijedor: Lives from the Bosnian Genocide by Patrick McCarthy....
"The Wrong Sort of People"

Essay by Michael Bouman

Much of the news I read is all about "the wrong sort of people."  My newspaper ran a story on December 13 that said members of the three largest minority groups in the U.S. view each other with suspicion driven by negative stereotypes. [More...]

Children and Letters
Image of Dear Mrs. Larue book coverJulie Douglas brought back a flood of childhood memories when she wrote about parents teaching children to write letters. I remember how Mom taught me to practice circles and strokes with a pencil and paper, just as she had learned. Wonderful stuff! Read it!
The Impact of a Governor's Award
The deadline for submitting nominations for the 2008 Governor's Humanities Awards is January 25. Information on submitting a nomination is on our web site. This month I want to share a first-person account of what this award means from one of last year's winners, Janice Lee Urton of the Urich Community Historical Society. Turn the page and ask yourself if you know of such an organization.
High-Tech Benefits for New Harmonies Sponsors

Brother Oswald image

This is the last month we can accept community applications to host a touring Smithsonian exhibit on American "roots music" in 2009. These exhibits are extremely popular in communities because they generate so much spirit and community involvement. The reason is, the exhibit is just the beginning! Host communities often create a local exhibit to go with the Smithsonian one. Where the subject is music, you can imagine the potential! Host communities also organize community activities. More...

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