VISTA SOUGHT FOR TYGART VALLEY HOMESTEAD ASSOCIATION

VISTA position begins May 2014 and is a one-year position.  It may be extended for 2 – 3 years depending on VISTA’s project development and fundraising.  The VISTA will be assigned to the following projects:

2015 Marks the 75th Anniversary of the historic Homestead Elementary School, the last of the 99 schools built under the New Deal program of rural development following the Great Depression to still be in active service. The school is the heart of a struggling rural community and is faced with closure. A local group has organized to commemorate the history of the school and its community, one of the original New Deal Resettlement Homesteads, to fight to keep the school open, and to develop much needed jobs through heritage tourism. The centerpiece activity currently is planning an anniversary celebration which will include publicizing the history, organizing public and financial support, and archiving their collection of documents, photographs and artifacts pertinent to the history of the Homestead. This project will not only commemorate this milestone anniversary, but will also help to move the sponsor organization forward in its efforts to preserve the school as a working elementary school and historical site and enhance its depository of artifacts and data from this New Deal settlement. This economically challenged rural area is struggling to do this with an older volunteer effort and a VISTA would enable a the project to move forward with this mission in the true spirit of the efforts of the New Deal “work to live” programs.
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Tygart Valley Homestead School is located about 15 miles south of Elkins, WV. Please contact Gibbs Kinderman at gibbskinderman@frontiernet.net for more information or to apply.