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
Essex National Heritage Commission Support New Regional Vocational Technical High School

As we begin to move into 2008, all of us connected with the Essex National Heritage Commission want to wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous new year. We certainly hope that the recent holiday season was a pleasant one, and that this special time of the year, spent with friends and family was restful and rewarding.

Essex Heritage Supports New Regional Vocational Technical High School

The Essex National Heritage Commission (ENHC) have been following with great interest the current plan to merge North Shore Regional Vocational Technical School in Middleton, Essex Agricultural and Technical School in Danvers and the Peabody Vocational School into a new facility located on 166 acres adjacent to the Essex Agricultural School and the North Shore Community College campus in Danvers. The ENHC wholeheartedly and enthusiastically supports this new $140 million dollar state-of-the-art facility that is scheduled to open in 2012. We urge all North Shore community leaders to actively support this measure since it will serve 17 North Shore and Cape Ann cities and towns and provide educational opportunities for well over 1400 students, hundreds of whom do not currently have access to this kind of training. The benefits of this new school to the region are obvious. ENHC has been and will continue to be a strong advocate for the preservation and advancement of agricultural initiatives in this region, and the creation of a new and expanded educational facility of this kind will support those efforts. Additionally, the technical educational disciplines offered in this facility will provide more highly trained trades persons to support the many future historic construction and preservation efforts needed in this region This project will also have a significant, positive economic impact on this region. We realize that raising the required funds will be a burden on the communities that must contribute to building the school, but we believe that the benefits gained by the region will be substantial. If we act together as a region, we can begin to train a pool of skilled workers for the future that will certainly be essential in attracting new business to the area, bolster our sagging economy and greatly enhance our quality of life. Job creation in this state and this region are lagging behind national averages and in the very near future, graduates of this new institution can help reverse that trend.

Essex Heritage Grant Program Applications Due Soon

Earlier this month, the applications and the parameters of the Essex National Heritage Commission’s Partnership Grant program were posted on the Commission web site, www.EssexHeritage.org. We urge any organization or community that is interested in applying for a 2008 grant, review the grant information on line and consider preparing an application for a grant before the March 3, 2008 deadline. Grants will be provided in several categories, and as in the past, an award from the Tom Leonard Grant Fund for education will be awarded to an organization with a focus on underserved youth. The ENHC Partnership Grant Awards were first provided in 1999 and since the inception of the program, over 200 grants totaling in excess of $1.5 million have been provided to organizations and municipalities in all 34 communities in the region we serve. In 2007, thirty-eight grants totaling $114,000 were awarded to communities throughout the region from Salem to Newburyport.

Awards last year included grants to a writers group from the Salem Council on Aging that provided funds to publish and promote a booklet of personally written perspectives on the evolution of Salem. A Grant was provided to the Congregational Church in Topsfield to help preserve the attic, tower, and the belfry spire. Funding was provided to the Caleb Cushing House in Newbury for the restoration of 58 original wooden windows in the national historic landmark build in 1808.

How can you help to support the work of the Commission?

The ENHC is committed to you, and offers an opportunity to any company, organization or individual who wants to help the Commission in its efforts to safeguard hundred of irreplaceable cultural, historic and natural resources in this region. A personal contribution to ENHC will insure that the unique qualities of this region remain and are protected and preserved for future generations. For more information on how simple it is to support this work, we ask you to visit EssexHeritage.org and click on the Donate to Essex Heritage logo.