A Rotary Club restores a museum in USA

Transcript :

After a 2021 tornado and subsequent electrical fire damaged the African American Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a Rotary club in the city acquired a $10,000 disaster relief grant from District 6710 to help restore the museum.

But “we didn’t just want to be handing out the check,” says Vickie Elrod, a past president of the Rotary Club of Bowling Green.

“We wanted to get boots on the ground to get involved with the preservation of those artifacts.”

About a dozen Rotarians attended workshops on archiving, and the club is assisting the museum in digitizing documents.

They include records on Shake Rag, a once-vibrant district settled by former slaves and soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War.

The financial assistance enabled the museum to work with a conservator on preserving its uniforms and other clothes.

The museum reopened in August, and Rotarians continue to assist with cleaning damaged artifacts, pictures, and equipment.