April showers have or will hopefully soon bring May flowers by the time you read this. At the museum, the month of April was full of activity to pollinate the mission to keep local history alive. We had over 900 4th graders from Bellevue Public Schools and others from both Brownell Talbot and Springfield Elementary tour the museum. Some of these students were even able to take part in a tree planting ceremony to plant a new hackberry tree at the log cabin.
Volunteers have begun tackling the significant project of painting the exterior of the museum’s train caboose and also replacing the rotted and worn flooring. Working on even the days that the museum is closed, this project aims to be completed by the museum’s pie social event on June 10th, where you can get a first look at the caboose renovations.
I’m pleased to also announce that the effort to save our historic Sarpy County newspapers has entered its first stages to digitally scan and preserve these special documents. Funds raised have allowed us to save all of the Gretna newspapers in the collection and some 20,513 pages of history found in the Bellevue newspapers. This first stage is to tentatively be completed by late summer of this year. It is hoped that Papillion newspapers will be tackled at some point in the not too distant future.
Finally we took time off from these projects and others to honor our volunteers this month. Not just these special projects but day to day museum happenings are able to take place because of the volunteer support the organization is fortunate to have. We’re always looking for a few extra volunteers to help. If you are interested, please let me know. If you would like to help but find you’re unable to give your time, there are still other ways to help including OmahaGives! on May 24.
See you at the museum,
Ben Justman
Executive Director