Essex National Heritage Area
Tom Leonard, President, ENHC

Tom Leonard,
President Emeritus, ENHC

Tom Leonard writes a monthly column for the community newspapers in the Essex National Heritage Area. This is a reprint of this month's column.
tleonard
at essexheritage.org.

Columns
End of the Year Essex Heritage Activities

I hope your Thanksgiving was pleasant and that you had the chance to reunite with family and friends to celebrate this most American of holidays. I suspect that you are getting ready to celebrate the holiday season and regardless of what holiday you celebrate all of us at Essex Heritage hope the season will be rewarding and as the New Year arrives with, that we might all be able to look forward to better times. Economic conditions in this country and the world have deteriorated over the second half of this past year, and we can only hope that with the focus of the new administration in Washington, and with the help of economic experts from all over the globe, the situation can be reversed before the New Year is too old.

Visit from National Park Service’s Second Century Commission

Essex Heritage was chosen by the National Park Service’s Second Century Commission to provide testimony at a recent local hearing. This 28 member blue ribbon panel has been formed to chart the future of the National Park Service as it begins its second century in 2016. The panel that is co-chaired by former United States Senators Howard Baker, and J. Bennett Johnson and includes national leaders, experts and thinkers including John Fahey, President of the National Geographic Society; Sally Jewell CEO of REI and Sandra Day O’Conner, retired Associate Justice, US Supreme Court. Essex Heritage was honored to be chosen, along with the Lowell National Historic Site as one of only five sites visited by the Commission. Essex Heritage was the only Heritage Area chosen out of the forty such entities in the country, to testify, as an outstanding example of the new types of Park Service partnerships, that focus on local participation and civic engagement to assist the Park Service achieve its mission. Several local officials provided testimony on the success of Essex Heritage, and we look forward to positive recommendations from the Commission in 2009.

Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program Suspended

Early each year many non-profit organizations in the region begin to develop applications for the Essex Heritage Partnership Grant Program. This program has offered support to municipalities, heritage organizations and other non-profits for many years. Unfortunately, as a result of a cut in funding of $93,750, recently announced by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Essex Heritage has been forced to suspend the 2009 round of grants at this time. The reduction of support in the Commonwealth’s funding, while understood in these uncertain economic times, has placed other ENHC initiatives in jeopardy as well, but every effort is being made to keep as many of our programs as possible on track. The vast majority of the thirty current Partnership Grants that were announced in June 2008 are under contract, and ENHC will continue to support those efforts even though funding is difficult. Those grants were offered in good faith and commitments were made by many of our partners, and ENHC will stand behind those commitments. Every effort is being made to seek alternative funding from many sources to help fill the gap that has been created. We are particularly gratified by gifts from over 100 local individuals who responded to a recent electronic appeal. Essex Heritage has recently “kicked off” its second annual appeal for support, and there is every hope that through the generosity of our many supporters the gap in funding will continue to be closed.

Year End Annual Giving

As the end of the year approaches, many of you, like me, spend some time considering and making donations to favorite charities. With the difficult economic conditions that exist today, and the continuing waves of negative news that we are receiving daily about the state of the economy, for many this will be a tough time to share their resources. I hope that, even with these conditions that are the worst that many of us have experienced in our lifetimes, you will still consider offering support to the charities of your choice. At this time of year, many local organizations ranging from heritage based initiatives to social service programs are conducting annual appeals for support, and without an ongoing commitment from the generous donors in this region those efforts will fall short. The organizations that you support are doing wonderful work for many in this region and without your generous support, conditions will continue to deteriorate and the most fragile among us will suffer.

Thomas M. Leonard is President Emeritus of the Essex National Heritage Commission, Inc., the nonprofit management entity of the Essex National Heritage Area, and can be reached by clicking here.