To the editor:

The Brown County Historical Society would like to thank its membership and the community for its support of our children’s program, Hands on History. We conducted five sessions this year and over 70 children participated.

The focus of the program has been to engage the youth of the community in a series of activities which pioneer children might have experienced. Learning by doing, with their “Hands on History,” the children have been involved firsthand in spinning and weaving, tin punching, decorative painting, sewing and investigating the meaning behind topics such as Jacob’s Ladder and its use in folk art and history; hearthside cooking, including baking and making homemade ice cream; learning about domestic life by doing laundry on a washboard, churning butter and shelling corn; and enjoying childhood games of yesteryear such as an egg and spoon race and bobbing for apples.

The children who attended were not only from Brown County, but also from Spencer and Bedford and even as far away as Michigan. (They were visitors to Brown County and found out about the program from website listings of the historical society and the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau).

Thank you to Pete and Ginni Bullard, Dorothy Babcock, Jim Kelp, Mary George Kipp, Wanda Lawson, Brenda and John Main, Aileen Wineingar, Bob and Joyce Shook, Marcia and Clay Sledd, Rhonda Dunn and Richard Frenzel. Thank you to the historical society for support of this endeavor. Thank you, too, to the Brown County Community Foundation for its generous grant supporting Hands on History, and to the Brown County Democrat and the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau for providing press releases and calendar space.

Planning for the 2017 program will begin shortly and there are many volunteer opportunities. If you have a love of history, enjoy working with children and want to share your passion for history, Hands on History would love to have you spend a fun-filled afternoon with the youth in our community.

For additional information or to volunteer, please contact the Brown County Historical Society at 812-988-2899

Kathy Sparks, Brown County Historical Society

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