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Canal Assn. to receive national award
The Albert B. Corey Award is named in honor of a founder and former president of AASLH. It recognizes primarily volunteeroperated organizations that best display the qualities of vigor, scholarship, and imagination in their work. The award is given by the Leadership in History Awards committee at their discretion. The AASLH awards program was initiated in 1945 to establish and encourage standards of excellence in the collection, preservation, and interpretation of state and local history in the United States. It is the most prestigious award of its kind. This year's awards represent 84 organizations and individuals from throughout the United States. Award winners will be honored at a special banquet during the 2006 AASLH annual meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. Dan McCain, president of the Carroll County Wabash & Erie Canal Association, will accept the award on behalf of the association. The Corey Award recognizes the canal association volunteers for making the Canal Interpretive Center galleries and exhibits a reality. The Center brings to life the 1832-1876 canal era in Indiana, highlighting Delphi as a canal town. According to figures provided by McCain, the original, estimated cost of the Interpretive Center galleries and exhibits was $600,000, based on commercial contracting. The project was completed for $212,500, with a grant from the Department of Natural Resources, requiring a 20 percent match. McCain said volunteer hours and donated materials made more than the 20 percent match. He said the volunteers worked Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for 18 months, building most of the center's 60 exhibits. "Ingenuity, resourcefulness, and thousands of hours of skilled volunteer time went into these exhibits," McCain said. "Just the exhibits would have cost $60,000 if we hired the work done, but because of our volunteers, they cost $1,500." "The granting agency (DNR) had lots more paperwork to do as this procedure took hundreds of pages of documenting evidence to qualify these volunteer hours and donated materials," McCain said. "The Center might not even be open today if it weren't for our volunteers," McCain said. "And we're still able to offer free admission." He said more than 100 persons - including men, women, and youth - volunteer with the canal association and Delphi Historic Trails, and a core of half a dozen work every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings. "The volunteers keep coming back because they want to be involved and give something back to the community," McCain said. "We never turn anyone away. We just find out what they can do best and channel their energy in that direction. We have a lot of camaraderie, and all work toward the same goal. Our volunteers have a lot of initiative and like a challenge. They don't always do things the conventional way." "I think another key to our volunteer organization is that we're always looking for what to do next," McCain said. "We never say, 'OK, we've got it all done.'" "We have a lot of retired people volunteering, and some say, 'What will you do in the future'? We've got younger people coming on. They just don't have all the time right now. But they come on our Third Saturday Workdays, and do what they can." McCain is quick to credit all the volunteers for canal and trail accomplishments, but volunteer Pat Draper says it takes a leader. "Dan is the energy behind it," she said. |
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