South Williamsport Area Historical Collection grew from a story-gathering project and is dedicated to the collection and preservation of the ephemera of the people, places, events, and groups who live, work, and love in South Williamsport Borough, DuBoistown, Nisbet, and Armstrong Township, Pennsylvania.
Our focus is Storytelling, which enables people to focus on the most important aspects of their community — the people, both past and present, who helped build their hometown. We consult with Hands-on Heritage to accomplish this goal.
OUR GOALS: One goal is to use collaborative storytelling and listening to connect people to what’s important in their hometown, leading to positive change in their community. Another goal is to create a digital permanent archive of our community’s heritage and memories, that continues to grow and promote goodwill and fosters improvement. We are inviting the community to contribute to this project, expanding our shared knowledge of our community, and in the process, preserving and protecting it for all time.
OUR NEEDS: Funding is needed to support the long-term goals of the South Williamsport Area Historical Collection and its Storytelling project. In order for us to digitize and preserve the content that people collect and contribute to South Williamsport Area Historical Collection and the Storytelling project, we need to underwrite our foundational costs and our online archives. Donations are gratefully accepted.
OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Officers:
Dori Rankinen, President
Chuck Luppert, Treasurer
Carol Waltz, Secretary
Board Members:
Scott Lowery, Jim Dunn, Bob Coolidge, Doug Brewer
General Members, Researchers, Writers:
Nancy Lundquist Baumgartner, Margie Bower Plotts, Adam Thompson, Mary Jo Raniero, Sue Bastian, Bernadette Brewer
ABOUT HANDS-ON HERITAGE
Through your interest in your hometown, you are making Hands-on Heritage’s goal possible: Using collaborative storytelling and listening to connect people to what’s important in their hometown, leading to positive change in their community.
Storytelling enables people to focus on the most important aspects of their community — the people, places, events and organizations, both past and present, that helped build their hometown. The acknowledgment and acceptance of these stories create a sense of shared belonging, leading to renewed engagement on social, cultural and economic levels.
By connecting with and caring about your neighbors, our community can build a foundation of hope that leads to improved decision-making and relationship-building, resulting in a town everyone loves, and where everyone wants to live.
People care for what they love. Make them love their hometown.
Best wishes!
Robin Van Auken, Hands-on Heritage CEO, Project Director
Nancy Baumgartner, Volunteer Coordinator
PERSONNEL NEEDED
Do you have an interest in supporting the South Williamsport Area Historical Collection? Please consider the following positions and contact us if you would like to volunteer in any of the following areas:
PATRONS: Financial supporters of the South Williamsport Stories project. Underwriters of domain and website costs, workbook materials, workshop instructors, printing and promotional materials, software subscriptions, and more. Patrons also seek other benevolent supporters to join the organization with the intent to build community.
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Primary coordinator of content. Assigns stories and content creation to contributors. Collects content in shared Cloud directories (Google Drive, Dropbox), edits content for readability, grammar, punctuation.
MEDIA COORDINATOR: Collects artwork/photographs and transforms it into digital format. Creates photo montages, photo galleries, videos, etc. Responsible for all captions.
SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR: Conducts outreach via social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.), connecting people of the community with this digital resource. Responds to website comments, and engages and converses with the public.
WEBMASTER: Maintains website, updates plugins, adds new content (pages, posts, media), and oversees technical aspects of hosting and domain renewals.
EDUCATORS: Creates workbooks and holds workshops to introduce people of all ages to the concept of storytelling, focusing on the digital format. Engages children with elders to collect family histories, and teaches oral storytelling traditions with the intent to preserve all stories, photographs, mementos, and more. Also teaches people how to collect information from web archives to create their own South Williamsport Stories book.
CONTRIBUTORS: Responsible for researching and writing content, submitting it to the editor, and then sharing published content with family and friends, and the general community. Watchdogs for all things related to the history and heritage and future benefit of the South Williamsport area.
Contact us and let us know how you would like to help:
South Williamsport Area Historical Collection 