2015 June: Executive Director’s Blog!
Folks, I want to share a bit about the fun and touching birthday and anniversary events that took place here at the museum in Downtown Indiana, PA. This lovely community is the county seat of beautiful Indiana County. The museum’s setting, next to our Veterans Memorial Wall and the Indiana County Courthouse are fitting neighbors to our museum’s entrance and provide an appropriate venue for our outdoor activities.
With a spring chill in the air we welcomed guests for a full day open house. Len Evansic, good friend of the museum arranged for some great antique automobiles to be presented curbside in front of the museum and the Courthouse. The cars looked great and we also thank another long time museum friend and supporter, Sgt. Frank Kovalcik for arranging all street related needs and for being present at our event.
Thanks as well to Maria Jack of the Indiana County Tourist Bureau. Maria was kind enough to set up our beautiful Stewart “pop-up” and have an array of visitor opportunities for our county displayed.
Harold Wood and Tom Robertson set up an info table on the Stewart 310 Cessna, one of Jimmy Stewart’s personal family planes, which, with your support will be restored and become a permanent exhibit at the Jimmy Stewart Airport.
Of course, the great staff from Cura Hospitality had a beautiful birthday cake and punch ready to be served at the end of our program.
To set the stage in appropriate fashion, we had the privilege of a Flag Presentation and Salute performed by the veterans of the Clymer VFW. Thank you gentlemen, for many jobs, well done!
We were so honored that Senator Don White, County Commissioners Ruddock, Evanko and Baker, Indiana Mayor Hood and a staff member from Representative Dave Reed’s office all joined us and shared congratulatory remarks on the occasion of James Stewart’s 107th birthday and the 20th Anniversary of the opening of the Jimmy Stewart Museum.
Altris Inc, graphics made a handsome addition to our setting and delineated the day’s events.
We thank Bill Sutton and Dave Fairman for the work they did to help us have the Commonwealth Historic Marker on Stewart moved to a more appropriate location near our entrance. Looks great guys!
This event, like all we do here, from operating the ticket booth and welcoming our guests from around the world to our museum would not be possible without our dedicated volunteers.
And though that lovely cake from our Cura friends was iced, the real icing for this little event, was the beautiful singing provided by Indiana’s Sweet Adeline’s! Arrayed on the steps of the Indiana Free Library, they helped us complete the desired picture. Small town America and small town Americans celebrating and honoring what makes our country great. For us here, James Stewart embodies the qualities of selflessness, commitment to country, craft and family. He, by quiet example, reminds us that privilege and fame and financial success does not mean one moves above and beyond those basic values, but Stewart clearly shows us, that especially with privilege comes responsibility. For all of us, in this nation—just by merit of the good fortune of living here, we have been given the real privilege, so for each of us, great or small, we all are called to carry the responsibilities to preserve and build upon the goodness of the past and carry forward, undeterred the simple, honest and meaningful actions that will help us insure a positive and humane future for our world. Thanks Jimmy!
As ever….
Thanks for listening,
Tim