The Collin County Observer

WFAA - History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing

03/05/10

11:04:09 pm, by bill

, 340 words,

Categories: News Clippings, Quality of Life, 2010 Budget

WFAA - History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing

History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing

by STEVE STOLER / WFAA-TV
Posted on March 5, 2010 at 4:57 PM
Updated today at 5:54 PM

******

A rally will be held on the steps of the North Texas History Center in McKinney Saturday morning in an effort to drum up support to save it. The museum is in jeopardy of running out of money and closing its doors.

The building that houses the center is historic itself. It was built as a U.S. Post Office in 1911. Collin County now owns it and leases it to the history center. County commissioners, who act as landlords, recently decided to cut museum funding 75 percent and stop funding altogether next year. "I was surprised and horrified," said museum executive director Vicki Day.

The museum houses historic artifacts from five North Texas counties, from authentic flags, a covered wagon and civil war uniforms, to military weapons, a mask worn by Abraham Lincoln and slave shackles.

Students from area schools, including the Bonnema kids, often come to the center to learn hands-on about their heritage.

“It’s real-like. It’s not in a book. You can actually feel it,” said Boone Bonnema, a student. His grandfather, Arch Bonnema, also likes the hands-on approach. “It becomes more real to them when our grand kids can go there and try on clothes and actually touch and hold some of the old tools that our grandparents had to do to make things that are all electric for us."

History Center officials say they had a five-year plan to become self-sufficient without any county money. But the commissioners’ sudden move has left them struggling to find a way to survive. “If we're lost, that means history is lost. You can never retrieve it. It's gone forever," said Day.

Many of the supporters who will attend Saturday’s rally will be dressed in civil war uniforms. After the rally, they will march to the downtown McKinney square, where they will ask people to help save a local treasure.

link to this story at wfaa.com....

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The Collin County Observer

WFAA - History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing

03/05/10

WFAA - History museum loses funding, in jeopardy of closing

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