Presentations on topics of regional and national interest will be part of the 2003 Heritage Preservers series that begins on February 19 at the Morris Senior/Community Center. Programs will be held each Wednesday at 1 p.m. February 19 through April 23 at the Center, located at 603 Oregon Avenue. Heritage Preservers is now one of several programs within Learning Unlimited, one of the Learning In Retirement Networks (L.I.R.N) located throughout the State of Minnesota.
Learning Unlimited, the local LIRN organization, embraces, in addition to Heritage Preservers, other local programs that provide intellectual, cultural and other activities directed at older adults in Morris and other communities within approximately a 50-mile radius in all directions of the city.
This year's Heritage Preservers topic, "Empowering Citizens: Past Knowledge and Future Action," consists of three programs on historic women of Minnesota who have been influential in saving and protecting our state's natural resources and local environments. Programs will be coupled with National Issues Forums on environmental stewardship.
Launching the series on February 19
The first program that will focus on the contributions of historic women of Minnesota will include a dramatic presentation of "In Her Own Words" featuring Morris residents Carol Day, Athena Kildegaard and Randee Hokanson. The three presenters will read from diaries, journals and letters that illuminate the lives of relatively unknown women of this region. The materials for this presentation, to be held at 1 p.m. February 19, have been drawn from documents housed in the Stevens County Historical Society.
The other two programs feature women who, in their time, enjoyed more prominent public recognition, yet today they are hardly household names. On March 12 Kathy Ray of Playing on Purpose Productions will present a one-woman play, "Coya Come Back." The play tells the story of the first really well-known woman in the political history of Minnesota, Cora Knutson. She served in the Minnesota Legislature and was elected to two terms in the U.S.House of Representatives.
The third program in the historic women series will be held April 23, and will feature the ever-popular Charlie Maguire, the "Singing Ranger. Maguire will present with music and photographs the accomplishments and adventures of the first woman superintendent of Itasca State Park. This program, "Mary Gibbs: She Freed The Mississippi, 1903-2003," will be held in the South Gym of the Morris Elementary School rather than at the Senior Center. Transportation from the Senior Center to the Elementary School will be provided.
National Issues Forums
The three National Issues Forums, all of which will be convened by Phyllis Gausman, a retired teacher from the Chokio-Alberta schools, will address the question: "How realistic is the vision of environmentally sustainable global development as promoted by the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development at Johannesburg, South Africa, in August 2002?"
The first presentation in this series will be held on March 5. A preliminary consideration of the topic will be led by Dr. Paula O'Loughlin, associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Morris, in a program titled "What Is Sustainable Development?"
On March 19 Dorothy Rosemeier, director of the West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership, and Roger Boleman, director of media services at UMM, will give a presentation on the Johannesburg Goals and the policies that may bring about their implementation in "What Changes In Policy and Attitude Need to Occur?" The presenters will discuss the goals and policies that nations may need to implement in order to reach the Johannesburg Goals.
The third of the programs in the National Issues Forums will be held on April 2. In "Up-front and Personal: What Are Our Specific Individual Responsibilities In The Implementation of the [Johannesburg] Goals?" Mary Jo Forbord, Starbuck, and David Fluegel, of the Center for Small Towns at UMM, will ask how local entities may attempt to implement the Johannesburg Goals and what the effect will be on institutions and individuals.
Each of these forums will include a small group discussion following the presentation. The small groups will be asked to address specific questions and the groups will present their opinions to the larger audience. By so doing, it is hoped that the six programs will result in informed deliberation, in a reasoned plan or plans of action locally, and in a greater appreciation for this region of Minnesota.
These programs, presented for the benefit of west central Minnesota citizens, are made possible with funding from the Minnesota Humanities Commission in cooperation with the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Minnesota State Legislature, and the University of Minnesota, Morris as well as the Minnesota Arts Council. Local co-sponsors of the Learning Unlimited/Heritage Preservers grant include: Chokio-Alberta Schools, Morris Area Community Education, Regional Fitness Center, Stevens County Historical Society, Stevens County Council on Aging, The Saga Spinners, University of Minnesota Retirees Association, and West Wind Village.
Learning Unlimited/Heritage Preservers is also pleased to present at the Senior Center "Heritage Days," a program sponsored by the Stevens County Council on Aging for the benefit of Morris Sixth Grade students. The program will include an Intergenerational "Hands-on Museum" on Thursday, April 25, and a dramatic interactive presentation by the UMM "Creative Dramatics for Children" Theatre Class, led by Dr. Ray Schultz, UMM assistant professor of theatre arts.
The public is invited to participate in each of these presentations and forums for lively discussion of topics that will entertain and inform. Refreshments and a continuation of the topic of the day via informal conversation with friends, neighbors and acquaintances will follow each program.
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Last Modified Tuesday, February 01, 2005
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