February 2017 News From The Donora Historical Society And Smog Museum

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 January 2017 20:18

The Donora Historical Society recently announced the following events.

Appalachian Studies Conference

In 2013, the Donora Historical Society partnered with the Heinz History Center and Cal U of PA on a digital storytelling project. Videos were created by Cal U students for Donora as well as other neighboring historical societies. This project has been repeated since then with other historical societies throughout western PA and the panhandle of WV, and again in Donora. But the original video done for Donora in 2013 featuring the 1948 Smog and Guenter Kunert’s poem, “The Song of a Small Town,” is still considered the most popular.

Since then, digital storytelling has been such a positive influence on the Historical Society’s presentations and website that we used it as the foundation of the Environmental Conference that we held in 2014.

Along with the Heinz History Center and Cal U of PA, the overall project experience was recently submitted and accepted for the Appalachian Studies Conference that will be held over four days in March 2017 at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. We will all be attending to present the project to the panel to be judged amongst all the other entrants.

Game Films Get-Together
Due to the excitement generated from our ongoing game film project, we are planning on having a “Game Film Get-Together” – a reunion of sorts – to show and relive those games with former coaches, players, cheerleaders, band members and fans. We now have enough games converted, thanks to former players, to make this happen. Look for future announcements regarding the “get-together” activities when we show a couple of football games to an audience at a venue in Donora that can also accommodate food and drinks. More than likely, this will occur on a Saturday afternoon and we encourage audience participation with the sharing of their stories.

While most of the films that we have converted show mostly game footage, there are games that show brief and extended footage of cheerleaders, majorettes, band members and parents during senior night. Those games that contain that content is noted on our website.

If you have any questions on exactly which games we have and which have been converted, please consult the Historical Society by voicemail or email (see below), or see the full list of games on our website under the “Game Films” tab.

Eldora Park Walking Tour
Our first-ever Eldora Park Walking Tour will be scheduled for Saturday, March 26 or Saturday, April 1 at noon.

The tour will start at the Smog Museum in Donora with a photo and newspaper article presentation on Eldora Park. We will then drive the three miles to conduct the walking tour portion in the Eldora section of Carroll Township on the Wickerham Farm.

The cost will be $10 per person and you should allow two hours for the presentation and walking tour. If you have any questions about the tour itself or would like to be added to a signup list, please contact the historical society. All phone messages and emails will be returned and you will be notified on the status of the tour date.

Next Cement City Walking Tour Date Set
The first in a series of our seventh annual Cement City Home and Walking Tours will be scheduled for Sunday, April 23 at 1 p.m. The cost of the tour is $12/person. Allow 2.5 hours for the event. Space is limited. Please call or email to RSVP. If you have any questions about Cement City or one of our home and walking tours, please consult our website and click the “Cement City” tab, or contact the historical society.

Another tour will be scheduled in October if you can’t make the April tour, and it is encouraged to call or email to get your name added to a waiting list to get contacted when a date has been scheduled.

Additional Info
If you have additional questions about the subjects mentioned above, the society, museum, meetings or possibly volunteering, feel free to stop by on Saturdays or by special appointment (with at least 72 hours’ notice), email us at DonoraHistoricalSociety@gmail.com, call us at 724-823-0364 and leave a message, visit us on the web at www.DonoraHistoricalSociety.org, or follow us and like us on Facebook at “Donora Historical Society and Smog Museum.”