In 2022, through individual donations, grants, sponsorships, and our all-volunteer Executive Director and Board of Directors, The Ridge Macon County Archaeology Project positively impacted the local and surrounding communities. We provided multiple educational outreach programs and student service learning opportunities including cemetery surveys, historic plaque purchase and installation, school field trips, an art and infographic contest, and offering opportunities for students to volunteer to help with events.
University service-learning collaborations - Tuskegee
University and Auburn University: in conjunction with their course work, students
worked with the Ridge Project to survey and document grave sites in the
historic Warrior Stand Cemetery, Warrior Stand, Alabama, and to learn about
locating and interpreting courthouse Probate records.
Churches: Creek Stand AME Zion Church – The Ridge
Project secured a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation on behalf of the
church to purchase and erect a National Register of Historic Places plaque.
K-12 and College students and Adults – 4th-grade students from Notasulga
High School (Macon County) and students from Troy University’s Anthropology
Club participated in a field trip to The Ridge Project’s Interpretive Center to
learn the basics of archaeology and paleoethnobotany. Adults from the local
community attended a community archaeology and genealogy day at The Ridge and
participated in similar activities. Volunteers from the Alabama Department of
Archives and History attended a program at the Interpretive Center to hear an
overview of The Ridge Project’s history and community-based work, and about
Federal Road history. Students from Tuskegee Institute Middle School (TIMS,
Macon County, Alabama) and from the Anansi Youth Community Center in Ghana,
Africa participated in the Storytelling Festival infographic and art contest.
Students from Jefferson Davis High School’s drama club rendered a reader’s
theatre performance during the 2022 Old Federal Road Storytelling Festival.
Festivals – The Ridge Project presented the 2022 Old Federal Road Storytelling Festival. The day-and-a-half event included a public humanities program and an arts and culture day. Click here for festival highlights.
Consultants – we engaged an Archaeological Education
Consultant and a Fund-Development Consultant to increase our capacity to offer
successful programs and to plan for the future.
Historic Preservation Projects Spearheaded - Warrior
Stand Cemetery survey project.
Publications - The Storytelling Festival commemorative booklet included an essay entitled “The People of Creekwood,” a history of Federal Road and Alabama Fever migration and settlement, slavery, and post-Emancipation African-American black landownership. Click here to view the booklet.
Approximate numbers served: Students ages K-12 and
college students – 60, Adults – 200,
University faculty collaborations – Tuskegee University (1),
Auburn University (3), Troy University (2), University of Alabama (1), Alabama counties
served: Lee, Macon, Montgomery, Pike, and Russell.
MAKE AN IMPACT
WITH US!
Your generous end-of-year and 2023 donations will help us continue the work to benefit students, adults, and visitors of all ages. As we look to build on our 2022 successes and accomplishments since our founding in 2011, we ask that you donate generously today to support one or more funding targets for 2023:
Program Donations: Funding Target - $20,000 – your donation will support the following programs that we have in store for 2023-2024:
School field trips for elementary school students.
College student field trips for undergraduate students.
College student service-learning programs that are focused on historic preservation and provide graduate and undergraduate students with valuable field experience.
A one-week summer camp for 4th and 5th graders.
Archaeology Expedition partnership to offer a 2-3 day camping and archaeological dig experience to college students from HBCUs.
2023 Old Federal Road Storytelling Festival. humanities and arts and culture education and entertainment event.
Educational podcasts and other virtual programs.
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) survey to open a second archaeological dig site.
Operations and Capital Donations: Funding Target - $100,000 – your donation will support our goal to:
Purchase the Interpretive Center property (building and lot) - Our Center is the only one of its kind in Alabama. Your donation will help us to remain in this invaluable, strategic location along the path of the original Federal Road and will support further archaeological excavation and interdisciplinary research.
Recruit and hire a paid, full-time Executive Director - Our operations and educational outreach programs are conceived and executed with the end goal of pouring resources back into the local and surrounding communities by promoting local history and heritage. Hiring a full-time paid Executive Director will bring new administrative, programmatic, and fund development insights and expertise.
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