Neighbor News
Fairfield County Giving Day - Bethel Historical Society
24 HOURS TO GIVE WHERE YOU LIVE – March 9th
Fairfield County Community Foundation has a very challenging goal to raise $1 million in 24 hours through online donations to 400 local nonprofit organizations. We, at the Bethel Historical Society, are one of those nonprofits.
The Executive Board of the Bethel Historical Society is requesting that everyone age 18+ visit the FCGives.org on March 9th, select and make a donation to us.
Your donation of $10 or more will move us toward needed funding to carry on Historical Society events for adults and children, purchase archival materials, and continue funding for our Museum in the Street. Please share with your friends and move us toward our goal.
What we do for the community - the annual Children’s Victorian Christmas Tea, the annual Laura Ingalls Wilder Celebration, the annual Colonial Kids Summer Camp, working with the Bethel School System we completed our 21st year of taking all Bethel 2nd Graders on an historic tour of Bethel (can you imagine the first groups of children who participated in the school tours are now 27-28 years old and some of the teachers have already retired), created the Little Lark Newsletter for children, conduct adult walking tours of Bethel, participate in CT Open House Day, present an historic quilt program, annual Ghost Tour, presented the bronze statue of Barnum to Bethel in 2010 and celebrate his birthday each year with a Crazy Hat contest, created two films, The Swans Still Swim, a history of the Stony Hill Inn and the Rubino family and Bethel Vets Go to WAR, an interview with Bethel’s WWII veterans that was shown at the Bethel Cinema simultaneously on two screens. Often, we are asked by individuals to locate their ancestor’s graves in any one of Bethel’s cemeteries. When we do, the stones are reset, if needed, cleaned and photographed for the requestor. This past year we worked with the Town on the restoration of our Spirit of the American Doughboy statue followed with a rededication. What is coming in the spring - Museum in the Street, a self-guided walking tour of Bethel with 30 tour boxes located at historic sights accompanied by a map. Finally, we are continuing with the restoration of the 1842 Second Meeting House to create an even larger museum for Bethel. Founded in 1960, the Bethel Historical Society both catalogs and archives our Town’s grand history while consistently providing events and opportunities to make certain that the past does not remain a distant and out-of-reach era, but a lively and integral part of our modern day. Again, funds raised on Giving Day will help in the funding of programming, archival materials, research of historic sites, and additional building materials for our tour boxes.
