Friends Group to Fund Educational and Natural Programs, New Fort Mackinac Children’s Book and Continued Lighthouse Restoration

Sept. 20, 2005

Mackinac Island, Mich.— On Sept. 16, 2005, the Mackinac Associates Board of Trustees approved grants of $79,500 for a variety of projects and programs at Mackinac State Historic Parks, including:

• $32,500 to support education outreach programs. The Mackinac parks present nature and history programs across the state of Michigan to schoolchildren in their classrooms. Since 1988 they have presented programs like “Historic Mackinac on Tour” and “Water, Woods and Wildlife” to over 140,000 Michigan students from Detroit to Ironwood.
   
• $12,000 to create a new audiovisual orientation program at Historic Mill Creek. The new program will be comparable to popular programs available at Fort Mackinac and Colonial Michilimackinac, and will replace a 20-year-old slide-projector-driven program.
   
• $10,000 for an as-yet-undetermined spring project. Last spring Mackinac Associates sponsored additional interpretive positions across the parks and, in 2004, helped fund the first phase of the Mackinac Island Scout Barracks renovation.
   
• $9,000 to continue restoration at Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse.The 1892 lighthouse opened to public tours in 2004 as a restoration in progress, featuring tours to the top of the tower, the original Fresnel lens, costumed interpreters and a variety of exhibits, displays and panels.
   
• $8,500 to support a naturalist position at Historic Mill Creek in 2006. This grant makes possible the popular “Creatures of the Forest” program, a lively presentation revealing the plants and animals of Northern Michigan’s forests.
   
• $6,500 to support the production of a new Fort Mackinac children’s book titled Home to Mackinac. The young-adult novel, which recounts the tale of a boy returning to Mackinac Island in search of his family, will provide teachers a supplement to their Michigan history curriculum for elementary students.
   
• $1,000 to purchase a wireless sound system for use at special events.

Mackinac Associates is a membership group formed in 1981 to preserve the rich historic and environmental treasures of the Mackinac State Historic Parks in the Mackinac region. Membership has grown from 200 original members to over 4,500 in 2005. Members support the parks through membership fees and donations.

Mackinac State Historic Parks, a family of living history museums and parks in Northern Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac region, is an agency of the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. The sites include Fort Mackinac, Historic Downtown and Mackinac Island State Park on Mackinac Island, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City. The sites are accredited by the American Association of Museums. Visitor information is available on the Web at www.mackinacparks.com and by phone at (231) 436-4100.

Read more press releases from the Department of History, Arts and Libraries.