Ranching History Fair: Learn Practical Skills for Self-Reliance

Website

https://www.facebook.com/whittiertimebank

What is your Impossible and how will you achieve it?

Why is it important to keep history alive? The Whittier Time Bank believes that history can teach us about how local economy, volunteerism, and hands-on skills result in community self-reliance. The Ranching History Fair at the Hathaway Ranch Museum in Spring 2013 will evoke nostalgia for community traditions, self-reliance, and the value of hard work. Local exhibitors will display handmade goods and antiques. Demonstrations will include blacksmithing, machining, and quilting. Families will square dance. Kids will win prizes for completing a circuit of ten farm tasks including washing clothes, churning butter, and feeding livestock. Putting a major event together is a big challenge for a little organization like ours - but is it Impossible?

Explain how the $500 award will allow you to overcome your Impossible.

Three interns will make our fair Possible. How? The Ranching History Fair will host 1,000 visitors over two days. To bring this many visitors to our event, we will embark on an extensive public relations campaign, create a website, and design fun, historically-valid activities and entertainment. With a shoestring budget and an all-volunteer workforce — the fair is a fundraiser as well as a fun community event — we will rely heavily on our PR, Web, and History interns. The interns will work 10+ hours/week for six months. Making their stipends our top priority expresses our appreciation for their hard work and commitment, right from the get-go. We’ll seek an additional $1,000 from sponsors so each intern will receive $500.

Once you achieve your impossible, how will you share your experience to inspire others to achieve their impossible?

We will post 200 photos, taken by a professional photographer, on the Ranching History Fair website and Facebook page as an online album, so that others can see all the fun and educational activities at the fair. We’ll allow comments and posts so participants can write about their experience at the fair and post their own photos from the event. We’ll link photos of our interns back to the GOOD Maker page with the caption: Interns Powered by GOOD, so that others can find this funding opportunity.

Discussion

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