Essex Heritage & Featured Partner Events

Essex Heritage is proud to introduce the Honorary Committee for the 2012 Essex Heritage Hero Award Dinner. This group of committed business colleagues, volunteers and friends of the 2012 Award recipient, Thomas M. Leonard, is chaired by Joseph M. Gibbons, President & CEO of Salem Five. Plans to honor Tom are underway and we anticipate an exciting evening at the fifth annual Essex Heritage Hero Award Dinner!  

Essex Heritage is grateful to regional and local businesses that have made an early commitment to the Heritage Hero Event through sponsorship and program ad patronage. A special thanks to Eastern Bank and Saugusbank for their support as a Banner Sponsors. We thank Hunt's Photo & Video and The Provident Bank for Lead Sponsorship contributions, Green Meadows Farm, Hospice of the North Shore, North Shore Community College and St. John's Preparatory School for Landmark Sponsorship contributions and Salem State University for sponsoring a table and Wire 4 Hire for sponsoring a toast.

Please join us in honoring Tom! Tickets are available for purchase online and we welcome your interest in all available sponsorship opportunities.
 

Thanks to Salem Five for their generous commitment as the Presenting Sponsor of this event. 

Essex Heritage Annual Spring Meeting!
Save the Date: April 10

A special thanks to the School of Education at Merrimack College for hosting the Annual Spring Meeting. Learn more about the College's unique Community Engagement programs designed to engage students in making a difference locally and globally. 

Attend a Trails & Sails Planning Session!

There are many ways for heritage sites, organizations and businesses to participate in the 11th annual Trails & Sails: Two Weekends of Walks & Water, taking place September 21-23 & September 28-30, 2012! Event submission will begin online next month. We seek all kinds of experiences appealing to all ages, skill levels and interests so spread the word! Together we can continue to offer the LARGEST collection of unique and exciting experiences in our region.

Get Involved! All past and prospective event hosts are invited to attend a Trails & Sails planning session to learn more about the benefits of hosting an event. Connect with other event hosts, generate ideas for events, scheduling, and marketing and promoting your site to thousands of people who participate in Trails & Sails each year. Email Emily to add your organization to the event host line-up and let her know which of the following Trails & Sails planning sessions you can attend:

• Friday, March 2, 9:00 - 10:00 AM
  Beverly Historical Society's Cabot House
  117 Cabot Street, Beverly, MA 01915
• Thursday, March 8, 9:00 - 10:00 AM
  Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters
  6 Plum Island Turnpike, Newburyport, MA 01950

A very special thanks you to TD Bank and Eastern Bank for their generous commitment to sponsor Trails & Sails 2012. Without their contributions, Trails & Sails would not be possible.
 

Essex Heritage would like to extend special thanks to our new and renewing corporate members! Thank you to Newburyport Five Cent Savings Bank for renewing their commitment as a Sustainer Circle Members and to Merrimack College for becoming a new Corporate Sustainer Circle Member. In addition, Essex Heritage would like to thank St. John's Preparatory School and Atlantic Hospitality Group, Inc. for renewing their Supporter Circle memberships!  

Business contributions to Essex Heritage illustrate a strong demonstration of your company's investment in the unique quality of life we enjoy in the Essex National Heritage Area. Find out more here.  

Become a member at any level! Discover special places and experiences throughout the county. Your tax-deductible Essex Heritage Membership helps to support programs that enhance, preserve and promote the unique historic, cultural and natural resources found within the Essex National Heritage Area. Join today! 

View Scenic Byway Photos

Photo by: June Rhodes, Gloucester

Over 50 great photos of the byway can be viewed on the byway's *NEW* Facebook page. The photos were submitted to the 2011 Essex National Heritage Area Photo Contest in the category "Experiencing the Essex Coastal Scenic Byway." To see photos, click here.

Byway Featured in Tourism Guides

Thanks to the ongoing support of the region's leading tourism advocates - chambers of commerce and destination management organizations - information about the byway will appear in several annual guides promoting visitation to the region.       

Newburyport Planning Heritage Trail App 

To help visitors and residents better understand and experience the city's three and half centuries of history, city leaders seek to create a technology-supported Clipper Heritage Trail. Read more.

The leading advocates for the National Park Service (NPS) recently gathered in Washington, DC to discuss the future of the Park Service. Essex Heritage executive director, Annie Harris, was invited to speak about "Connecting and Conserving Cultural Landscapes." She was joined on the panel by Stephanie Toothman, NPS Associate Director for Cultural Resources and Deanna Beacham, American Indian Specialist.

The panelists discussed the importance of integrating cultural and natural resource preservation strategies - especially for large landscape conservation. Ms. Harris emphasized the role that strong public-private partnerships must play in the future of the National Parks since the NPS cannot own and manage all of the landscapes and resources that scientists and educators say need to be conserved. "American citizens will not tolerate so much public ownership, and besides, we don't have the money," observed Ms. Harris. Ms. Harris used examples of the successful partnerships that Essex Heritage has formed with the National Park Service at the Salem Maritime and Saugus Iron Works National Historic Sites and projects such as Friendship Sails! and the summer youth job corps to illustrate her points. Read more (pdf).    

The US Congressional Caucus for National Heritage Areas is introducing legislation to standardize the heritage area program within the Park Service and establish a process for creating new areas. The bill has support from Republicans and Democrats as both see the benefits of National Heritage Areas. Congressman Tierney and Congresswoman Tsongas have both signed on as original sponsors of the bill.

Perhaps no act of the US Congress has done more to preserve historic buildings, revitalize old cities, and "level the playing field" between new construction and historic rehabilitation than the Federal Historic Tax Credit Act of 1980. The Act is now targeted for elimination and the National Trust for Historic Preservation has made saving the historic tax credit act the centerpiece of their advocacy work. If you would like to learn more about the act and National Trust's position on it, there is information here.  

Announcing New Grants Resource
for Essex County Nonprofits:
Grants Resource Center at ECCF

Essex County Community Foundation is pleased to announce the establishment of the EBSCO Publishing Grants Resource Center at ECCF (GRC). In partnership with Associated Grant Makers and sponsored by EBSCO Publishing, the GRC is a valuable research database for nonprofits seeking new funding sources through regional, national and international granting foundations. The GRC is a portal located at Essex County Community Foundation in Danvers that provides access, free of charge, to two databases: AGM's Grant Makers Directory which consists of in-depth data on 400 funders that grant in Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the Foundation Center's Foundation Directory Online which includes over 100,000 foundations, corporate donors, and grant-making public charities. Read more here.