FREDERICKTOWN — Rural America is quickly changing, transforming into a new world with every day that passes. But insight into the agricultural legacy of yesterday and today in northwestern Knox County will be preserved for posterity thanks to a HISTORY grant that has been awarded to the Fredericktown Historical Society. HISTORY is the parent company which produces the History Channel and related cable projects.
The “Save Our History” grant is for the purchase of equipment to be used by journalism students at Fredericktown High School in making a documentary. The film, “The Changing Face of Family Farms: Documenting Farming Past and Present in Knox County, Ohio” will be pursued throughout the year, with a goal of finishing and premiering the work to the community by the end of the school year.
Jennifer Smith of the Fredericktown Historical Society was excited about the grant, and the impact it will have countywide.
“This isn’t just the journalism students, it isn’t just Fredericktown High School,” Smith said. “We need the input of the whole community.” The students will join with the Fredericktown Historical Society, the Knox County Agricultural Museum and community members to collect as much historical material from the area as possible, both featuring items for the documentary, and also digitally scanning old documents and recording oral histories for the historical society’s permanent collection.
“The most exciting thing about this grant is that it will take the students’ journalism skills to the next level,” said journalism teacher Carolyn Grimm, noting that it will hone the students’ interviewing skills and introduce them to a whole new set of skills including video recording and editing. The end product, a DVD, will include video clips, still shots, music and narration.
“This whole project, while being very stressful, is an incredible opportunity,” Grimm said.
The students have begun preliminary projects, making a plan of attack, thinking about storyboards to track the shape and content of the documentary, and deciding who will do interviews. The equipment they will end up getting to use includes a digital video camera, a digital audio recorder, a scanner, and an Apple computer for editing.
This grant is one of only 11 awarded this year by HISTORY nationwide. It was also only the second time that the Fredericktown Historical Society has applied. The “Save Our History” grant program was created in 2004 by HISTORY with the counsel of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and the American Association of State and Local History.
The project will focus on everyday life for the family farm, using resources such as oral histories, a 19th century diary of a local farmer, and photographs and newspapers in the collection of the historical society and community. In addition, stories from social agricultural organizations will be collected, including the Farmer’s Institute, 4-H, the FFA, and local granges. It will include aspects of farming in Ohio today, including the rise of farmers markets, specialty and organic farms and agricultural festivals.
The proposed project hinges on the collection of as many parts of the community’s farming history as possible. The general public is invited to participate in this preservation project by sharing their farming memories with the Fredericktown journalism students. People who are interested should contact journalism teacher Carolyn Grimm at 694-2726.
