 Welcome to our session, Building Diversity in the National Register of Historic Places. I'm Jim Gabbard of the National Register of Historic Places Program at the National Park Service and I'm joined today by Rebecca Kinney, Board President of the St. John Family Life and Fitness Center and Megan Brown, the Chief of the State, Tribal, Local Plans and Grants Division here at the National Park Service. So I'm going to start sharing my screen now. Our topic is increasing diversity in the National Register of Historic Places. I'm a historian with the National Register of Historic Places. I've been with the program for 15 years and I review various states across the country and have seen the program evolve in the last 15 years. The first thing I would like to address is the off-sided statistic that the National Register of Historic Places has historically not been inclusive of all American stories. And to some degree, this is a true statement. As an example, here are some statistics about properties related to African-American heritage. Right now we have 2,343 properties listed in the National Register with African-American heritage as one possible area of significance. Now this is out of 97,706 total listings as of August 8th, 2022. This comes up to about 2.4%. But let's look a little bit more closely. What this number shows is the limitations of data. Data is only good as what is input into a system. For example, the National Register of Historic Places was created in 1966 with the first guidance and the first state nominations coming out in 1969. At that time though, the data categories for recognized areas of significance were limited. It wasn't until 1986 when our guidance included ethnic heritage as a possible area of significance. We had always had to catch all other as an area of significance option and many properties associated with African-American history were included in that way. And many others were listed under different areas of significance, including education, social history that weren't specific to the African-American experience. But those things can't really be caught in a data search. So in 1986 when our new database, the National Register Information System was created, new data categories were created and included. These were also included in our new guidance that we provided to the public and to the nominating authorities, in particular Bulletin 16A, how to complete the National Register of Historic Places nomination form. So for the first time, these new data categories included ethnic heritage for various groups, including African-Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders. However, not even that was able to capture the full breadth of these underrepresented resources. So when our new version of the NRIS was created in 2016, we added some new areas of significance in order to help fill the gaps in data, including women's history and subcategories that included civil rights. So back to those statistics. Looking specifically at African-American resources, the National Register, as I said, was created in October of 1966. The states did not begin nominating things until late 1969. So I ran a data search for various periods. For the first 20 plus years, just over 1% of the properties had an African-American focus as part of the property significance as captured by the data entry. As noted, this data may or may not be accurate due to the nature of data entry. But since we know that after 1986, ethnic heritage was a database category, we can see that from 1990 to 2010, the percentage more than tripled. By the end of 2009, the previous 20-year period saw 3.5% of nominations that had an African-American-related area of significance. The next five years sees further increases as the percentage creeps up to nearly 4%. Then in 2015, at the behest of the then-keeper of the National Register, Stephanie Toothman, Congress created an underrepresented community grant program, which provided a pot of money to state historic preservation offices to do survey and nominations for communities and categories of properties that are underrepresented in the National Register. These grants became available in 2016, and here, statistically, you can see the effect. Listings for African-American resources almost doubled in percentage, with over 7% of new nominations having African-American heritage as an area of significance. Similar increases occurred with other groups, including LGBTQ. So, what can be done going forward? Submit nominations. We can only list what comes across our desks. We can't unilaterally list properties. The National Register is intended to be a bottom-up, grassroots program. Anyone should be able to prepare a nomination. And here's an example. The Shrooth House in Mason County, Kentucky, located on the Ohio River, across from Ohio, is a well-documented connection to the Underground Railroad, but not as a stop or a station along the railroad, like many properties, but as a place where enslaved persons were rescued from bondage and moved north to freedom. The nomination form was interesting, informative, and made a very strong case for the significance of it related to this action, this event of freeing the enslaved persons. And it was prepared by a 15-year-old girl scout. If you have properties that you feel are potentially eligible, contact your State Historic Preservation Office. Or if you're interested in trying at nominating a place, the SHPO might have identified eligible places waiting assistance. What else can be done? We can amend older nominations. Remember that statistic of 1% between 1966 and December 31st, 1989, that had African-American heritage as an area of significance. Well, we all know that many of those properties that were nominated under criterion C for the physical characteristics or the architecture of the property might also have other important associations, including associations with underrepresented communities. At the time, it could be that the easiest way to list the property was under criterion C. And that's OK. For many people, it's simply the goal to get the property listed. But nominations are not set in stone. They can be amended at any time. New criteria, new areas of significance, even new periods of significance can be added. An example of that is the Oxford Historic District in North Carolina. First listed in 1988 in 2020, a whole new nomination was prepared to provide new boundaries expanding into areas that were settled by African-Americans and was inclusive of more history, including important civil rights associations in the 1960s. So older nominations are ripe for revisiting. Again, you can always reach out to your State Historic Preservation Office if you're interested in adding information to properties that are already nominated. So while we can't unilaterally list properties, there are some things that the National Register of Historic Places program and the NPS have been doing to help address this lack of representation. One of the things that we're doing now is a statistical sampling and internal data review of our older nominations to identify ones where the areas of significance might conform to adding underrepresented themes. Once this internal review is done, we will share that information with nominating authorities. That includes State Historic Preservation Offices, Federal Preservation Officers, and Tribal Historic Preservation Offices so that they may encourage amending nominations. Some of them may be simple, some of them may be a little more complex, but they are still ones that we feel could benefit from revisiting. We are working to prepare and update our guidance, and hopefully this will clarify concerns that many have over concepts like historic integrity and how it relates to the significance of a property. We're taking opportunities like this to provide information, to do outreach, and educate the preservation world about what the National Register is, what it means, how it works, and how we can better nominate properties. And finally, the NPS has a number of grant programs available, which Megan will discuss, including the underrepresented grant program, which helped fund Virginia's survey of Rosenwald schools. Becky Kinney is associated with one of those schools, and she's here to give her insights on the process of listing her building in Virginia. And later, she will speak about her experience in getting a grant from another of Megan's programs. So now, I'm going to turn it over to Becky. Thank you, Jim. Good morning, everyone. I'm here to tell you a little bit about the process that we went through as far as having a Rosenwald school and how we were nominated to the National Registry. It began in 2016. I didn't know a lot about the National Registry. I had heard about it and wanted to be nominated, wanted that property to be nominated. But I was approached by a young lady named Nia Bates, who addressed in 2016, who introduced me to herself and told me that she would be willing to work with us to help us to get our property nominated to the National Registry. Well, that 2016 was a great year because a milestone year for us. Because we also, at that year, had received the state highway marker from the Department of Historical Resources. So we had a celebration. And we had invited a lot of the Department of Historical Resources people there. And among those was Mark Warner. And so I introduced myself and told him our desires about wanting to be our property to be nominated to the National Registry. And so he was very sure that we were qualified because he said that we were already listed. The Rosenwald schools were already listed as a group, but not as an individual. And prior to that, in 2006, a survey had already been done on our school by a group who was studying Rosar on schools. And it was an architect out of the University of Virginia. I can't remember his name right now. But they had done a survey. And so he had a lot of information already on our school. So that kind of speed up the process because it's not an overnight process. And as you can see, in 2016, the talk began in 2016. And then in 2017 was actually when we actually got permission to submit an application of form, called PIF, preliminary information form. And so he being Mark stepped in and nominated a UVA student to complete that form for us. We worked with her with interviews and giving her all the information we knew that we had concerning it. And she did the process of getting the PIF form through all the review boards and getting it approved to go forward for the second stage. And the second step was the form of submission, which was done by Naya Bates. And being a historian herself and working in that field before she was very qualified to do it. So it started in 2016. The process was going on in 2017. And then in 2018 is when Naya took over and she got us through that process of the form, the second part of it. So it was in two parts, first and second. And we got our approval to go forth in June of 2018 to be nominated, our property to be nominated for the National Register and also as a Virginia landmark register. And that got approved. So in 2019, we were listed on the National Register. We got word from the National Poxon that we were listed on the 2019 National Register. So that was the process that we went through for getting our property nominated, a Rosenwald School. Thank you. Megan. Thank you, Becky. That's a great story. And I think. Thank you. We all can learn from the process you went through and the help you got. And that's an important piece of this. And just to echo what Jim said, it shows that anyone can do a National Register nomination. Like this isn't a super high tech kind of thing. So my name is Megan Brown. I'm the Chief of the State Tribal Local Plans and Grants Division. And I'm going to talk to you today about how you can find some funds to preserve those places that you're listing. And if you aren't already listed, we even have funding to help you do that. So we're going to run through quite a few grant programs today. So like Jim, I work for the National Park Service. I'm in the Cultural Resources Division in Washington, DC. And if you remember nothing else about us, our name is very long, so we shorten it up and call it Steel Pig. So if you are looking for money, follow the pig, and then you'll find us. But what I'd like to talk to you all about today is the Historic Preservation Fund. And that is the fund created by Congress in 1977 to support the work of the National Historic Preservation Act. It has two types of funding. It does non-competitive funding to our state and tribal partners every year to help run those SHPO offices that we've been talking about today, as well as competitive funding. And we're going to focus on that competitive funding today. One thing unique about the fund is it actually comes from offshore oil and gas lease revenue, not tax dollars. So the idea being that the destruction won resources leading to the preservation of other resources. And the fund is currently authorized through fiscal year 2023. So let's talk about the competitive programs. This is a unique time with the Historic Preservation Fund. It's the most funding we've ever had to give away in the history of the program and the most number of programs that we've ever had. We now have eight competitive grant programs, as well as some disaster programs. And that's in addition to our annual funding that we'd give out to states and tribes. So we're going to dive into these programs a little bit deeper. And hopefully you'll find a resource that might work for a project you're working on, or it might give you an idea for a project to fund. Kind of in relation to also what Jim was talking about our listings in the National Register, kind of shifting and changing and expanding. Really these grant programs since 2014 have focused strongly on underrepresented communities. And that's been a really exciting thing for us and staff to work on and work with the community and folks like Becky on preserving these wonderful resources, expanding the National Register to include those underrepresented resources. And you can see this just shows the wide variety of underrepresented communities that we've been targeting for funding since 2014. And that all kind of started off with our underrepresented community program, which Jim mentioned to you as earlier as part of the National Register. And this program, I could call it the little engine that could because it's been fairly small for a while, only half a million dollars. But the whole purpose is to fund surveys and nominations to the National Register for those communities that don't exist in it yet. And that includes amending nominations, as Jim talked about. So we've done a lot of work in looking at older nominations, district nominations and helping them tell the full story of that community, maybe not just pieces and parts of it. We're excited this year to have 1.25 million dollars available for this program. So if you have an area that maybe you don't quite know what all's there and you want to go out and survey it or you have a site like Becky did with a Rosenwald school that you want to get listed, this is a great opportunity. Those applications are available right now and they're due on the 10th of this month. So by the time you see this, that will have passed. But we'll be looking for 2023 funding, hopefully from Congress to continue the program. So keep an eye out for that. And this was a little bit limited in that states, tribes and certified local governments, which are our local partners can apply for these. So if you are a nonprofit interested in this, definitely reach out to our office, reach out to your state office and see what you can do about partnerships for this. There also is no match required for this program, which makes it ideal for a kind of starting off grant to get a property listed. So the next kind of grant program that came along for us to look at underrepresented communities is the African American Civil Rights Program, which started in 2016. And this program started with a focus on the 20th century primarily and what we think of as the civil rights movement, but it has since expanded. And a lot of that is through the projects we've received. We know now that the stories of the struggle for civil rights for African Americans in this country started long before that 20th century. And we take this program all the way back to transatlantic slave trade. So we can fund anything in that range up to the present. It has two types of projects, preservation projects that do physical work to historic buildings, as well as history projects. And those history projects can include a wide variety of things. They can do surveys, they can do national register nominations, which is a key part of what we're talking about today. They've funded oral histories, education projects, exhibits. And we even have opened it up to preserve collections that you might have archives, film, those types of things associated with the struggle for African American civil rights. This program is a little bit broader and it's open to states, tribes, local governments and non-profit organizations. One of the key things with the federal grant is making sure you're eligible as a group to apply for it. And if you're not, maybe looking for a partnership that makes you eligible. And another key thing about several of these grant programs that we're gonna talk about today is your site may already be listed and that's great. But if not, and it's eligible, you can still, you're eligible to apply. What we need to know is that you're eligible for an association with civil rights. And that's something to talk with your state office about. And if that current national register nomination maybe doesn't have that association, then one of the things we want you to do as part of that project is to amend that nomination and include that history so that we have a complete story of that site. So we can kind of work with you if you're not already listed, so don't panic there. And this is a largely growing program. We're up to 22.75 million to award and those applications will be due on November 8th. So I'm hoping the timing of this release will make that available to some of you. We have increased all the maximums on our grant programs 33% due to the increased cost of everything in our lives. And so the maximum for a preservation grant is 750,000 now and for a history grant is 75,000. So think about that. And there's also no match required for this program. A bit of a spin-off of that program is our history of equal rights grant program. And this is open to preserving sites related to all Americans in their struggle for civil equal rights, civil rights. Again, no match required, but this program focuses primarily on preservation projects. We have 4.6 million to give away and unfortunately these grants will probably be closed by the time you see this. So look to the future for the 2023 funding that we hope Congress will make available for this one as well. Our HBCU program is one of our oldest competitive programs. We have $10 million available for 2022 and those applications will be open in October and closed in January. So good timing if you have a historic black college and university that you're working with or know of in your community. These grants preserve national register listed and eligible buildings on HBCU campuses. We also have opened it up to fund preservation plans and national register domination. So you can see the theme here that each of our programs is working in conjunction with the national register to increase the documentation that we have on these wonderful sites. There is no match required for these and the same kind of range in project funding. So this is a wonderful opportunity if you're working with the HBCU grant. Our travel heritage grant is our oldest competitive program. We have about a half million dollars each year that we provide to federally recognized tribes Alaskan native and native Hawaiian communities. And we have funded some really interesting projects. A lot of these grants go to typical preservation projects like we talked about, but also look at promoting and preserving unique cultural heritage and traditions for the tribes. An example of that is featured here is the Hula Preservation Society in documenting the teaching of the dance to the younger generation. So those are some of the things that we try to do with this program. This program will also open in the fall and also no match required. So if we have tribes out there that are watching this, I hope you'll look at this and take advantage of this and our other programs because tribes are eligible for almost all of them and do apply. Same America's Treasures is probably a program you might have heard of. It's been around since the millennium and has funded projects all over the country. It focuses on nationally significant buildings and collections and we do that in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services which makes it kind of a unique program. Institute for Museum and Library Services actually manages the collections projects when they're awarded and then the park service manages the building projects. This program has some statutory rules. That means that Congress made some rules and it'll take Congress to change those rules. So we have to follow those. And one of those is that a building or collection can only receive a grant once. So we have a wonderful, we call it the Treasure Map is available on our website to look up and see if your site might have already received one in the past. And if it has, then you may not be able to apply it again but certainly feel free to reach out and talk to us about that. The other kind of key to this program is the dollar for dollar non-federal match is required. Now that doesn't have to be cash, it could be in kind, it could be volunteer services and you don't necessarily have to have it in place at the time of application but you need to demonstrate to us that you have a really good plan for raising it. That's important. We have a lot of funding to give away for this for 2022, 26.5 million. And those applications will open in the fall of 2022 and are usually due in December. So look for that as you move forward. One of the key features to this program is national significance. If you're a collections project like this example which is Rosa Parks bus in Detroit, you make a case for why that collection is nationally significant in your application. If you are a building or site, you need to be already listed at the national level significance. And what that means as a national historic landmark either individually or contributing to a national historic landmark district or listed in the national register at the national level significance. So in the register you can be national state or local and for this program you need to be at that national level. I tell you all of this because you need to check on this early on and make sure that you're eligible to apply for the program. The best way to do that is talking with your state of short preservation office. So that's something you could do right now even before the applications come out and make sure it's something that is a good fit for your project. Our new grant program that we just are actually working on awarding this week I hope is our semi-quincentennial grants. This is a fairly restrictive program in a way. We have to focus on the preservation of state-owned sites that are listed in the national register. So you have to already be listed and you have to be state-owned. And this does physical preservation and we are looking at sites associated with the founding of the nation or the commemoration of the founding of the nation. We have 10 million that'll be available in the winter of 2023. So you have some time to plan for this one. No match required. And for buildings and sites we're really looking at things that were built prior to December 31st, 1800 unless it's a commemorative site. So this one's a little bit complicated. So if you have questions about it feel free to reach out to us and talk to us about it and see if your project is a good fit. And lastly is our, I wanna talk about our Paul Brand Historic Revitalization Grants. This program's a little bit different in that it's you applying for a grant program that you were then gonna give out to entities in your community. So what you're applying for is telling us we would like this much money to create a grant program that's gonna focus on the preservation of certain things in rural areas that lead to economic development. Cause those are the key points of this program. So again, we're addressing another underrepresented community in some cases in rural. We have 10 million to award for this. The maximum grants 750,000 and there is no match. But the two keys are, the funding has to be spent in the areas considered rural fewer than 50,000 according to the census. And they need to lead to economic development. So you can see this is a great program for Main Street communities. We've had applications that come in from states that wanna focus on historic theaters in certain communities. We've had applications for African American resources in Main Street communities, those types of things. So this program is very broad and it's thinking and I strongly encourage you to get in touch with us and talk about your ideas for this program to make sure they are also a good fit. So I have just shared with you a lot of information on our grant programs and there's a lot to keep up with, trust me. This is the best way to keep up with it. You can sign up for our bulletins and we will send one out every time we announce a new grant program. And we will also send out when we award those grants. So it's a good way to keep in touch with us. It's a little bit of a complicated federal system but I trust you all can figure it out. So I encourage you to sign up for that to keep up with what's going on with the historic preservation fund. And I just wanted to quickly mention these are not all the programs the Park Service has. We also have programs that assist battlefields, Japanese confinement sites, maritime resources as well as repatriation of tribal artifacts and objects. So if you have one of those things, make sure you look to the Park Service for assistance there as well. So I wanted to just touch on some lessons learned from St. John that Catherine shared with me. Our Catherine Kerry is our outreach coordinator. So if you're looking for a grant, you're gonna be in touch with her. And these are kind of the things to carry forward and how the register works with the grant programs and meets these goals. First is that surveying and nomination is really important. You gotta know what you have before you can go save it. And a lot of our grant programs can help with this, not just our underrepresented community program. So look at that, look at that closely. Becky shared with us the process for their nomination in 2019 and also talked about how important it was to work closely with the state office on that. So that's a key partnership to keep in mind as you move forward with the nomination process. Knowing that your site is listed for the association with the grant program you're applying for. So if it's African-American civil rights, that nomination needs to have talk about African-American civil rights. If for some reason it doesn't, then we need to amend that nomination to tell that story. And those can all be eligible costs as part of the grant. So don't think that you have to do those on your own, build that into your grant application. St. John's has been lucky and received a few grants from us, especially to work on the building. So you can apply more than once for sale for all of these programs, not Save America's Treasures but the other ones. And sometimes you have to apply more than once to get a grant. And I know Becky dealt with that as well. That protection's a little hurtful, but if you can come to us and ask for your comments and help and improve that application, then you are likely to be successful and St. John's is truly a testament to that. As I said, St. John's has received two African-American civil rights grants from us in 2018 and 20. And the key to that is you may not be finished with that first grant, but you're showing by making progress on it. And you're completing those previous grants and your grant manager is confident that you can handle another one. So that's important. And St. John's did include a small match in theirs. It doesn't necessarily have to be a bull match and it's not required, but it does show that local investment in the project and even if it's just in kind donations or your volunteer time or something like that, it is a competitive best or not a requirement, but something to think about to make your application stronger. And then I think one thing we really saw in St. John was they applied for what they needed. They didn't take on more than they could choose, right? And thus they've been successful as they've worked through kind of this roadmap of preservation. Just because you can apply for $750,000 doesn't mean you necessarily should. So make sure you have a feasible project that you can tackle and do successfully because that's gonna lead to more funding as you go. And I think one of the key things St. John did and I hope Becky's gonna talk about this is assigning a grant manager for their project. So they had someone to get provided oversight for the project, it's not for bad things before it started, right? And you use grant funds to hire a person like that. So don't feel like you can add capacity with the grant funds, not create more burden on your organization. So do keep that in mind that you might need to hire some help to get through this. And just the St. John's is key to, key part of telling the complete story. HPF grants, we not only preserve the site, but we wanna lead to that documentation and that improved history that the National Register represents for the entire country. Some of these stories are hard stories to tell but they're important. And that's why the grant program is linked so closely with the National Register. And then just quickly, words of advice for applying for a federal grant. Start early, you can never start too early. Some of these grants I'm telling you are gonna not come out till January but you can go ahead and get going and getting things together. The systems are difficult. SAM.gov, grants.gov, there's a lot of.gov. You need to start early on those. They can take months to sign up for sometimes. Lately it seems like longer. Making sure your project eligible. We've talked about that important thing and that is the logical next step for your project. And then using current application forms, making sure your math is right. Don't be the only set of eyes. So get someone that's a little bit further away from your project to look it over and make sure that you're telling your full story, right? I like to say good photos but bad photos. Photos are worse a thousand words and we love to see through of your historic side of the sunny day. But if you have water pouring in the roof or sunlight showing through or real huge damage, we need to see pictures of that too. So show us the bad side as well as the good side. And deadlines are real for us. They're not just suggestions. That midnight deadline on grants.gov, it happens. And I will promise you grants.gov slows down tremendously at that point. So set yourself a deadline about three days out and pretend like that's the last day. So you make sure that you get that application in. As I mentioned, if you're not funded, please come get your comments. Even if you are funded, come get your comments. You've had probably five to seven expert preservationists look at and review your project by the time, you know, it goes through our process. So that's some great insights that you can have. And then good grantees often get funded again. And Becky is a testament to that as well. So keep on your good behavior with your grant manager and things will probably go well. With this, I'm gonna turn it over to Becky to talk about her lessons learned from the process. And I hope I know I'm gonna learn something too. So Becky, over to you. Thank you, Megan. That was excellent. You touched on a lot of points that we utilize in that process. And it was very helpful. For my first slide, there should be one slide coming up. I'll introduce myself. I'm Rebecca Kenney and I'm the board president. I'll tell you a little bit about myself and the why. The why I am so passionate about this project and also the beginning. For this slide, it's fitting that it's called the beginning because you will see that I'm an alumna of the St. John's School along with my sibling as well as my mother, we all attended the St. John's School. Well, my mother attended the first year that it was built in 1923. This was, she was one among the first ones to attend the school once after it got built. And for me, I was the last to attend. I attended St. John's Elementary School two years before it closed. It was my first and second grade class. And my sister as well as my two brothers at the bottom, they all attended but they were older. So by the time I attended, they had already gone on to another school. So my mother started the beginning of it and I ended it closed in 1954. The school is located in the Albemarle County, Virginia. It's a month seven that was built in Albemarle County. And we are one of the ones that will be the only one available once we are renovated to the public. So we are very excited about that. And that's why we are so passionate about renovating the school and bringing it back to life again. Next slide, please. Yes, as I said, my story is not the only story. There are other alumnus too that are still living today and that lives in that community. And if they're not in the community, they're still in contact with us. In 2009, when we were trying to decide what we wanted to do with the school because, and a little further on, I'll tell you how we came to own the school. We had not decided exactly what we wanted to do with it. And so we had a reunion and over seven at the time in 2009, there were about 75 alumnus still living. And so about 45 of them attended along with their siblings and descendants. And it was a great time. And that time we discussed got ideas from them as to what they would like to see done with the school. And so a lot of the alumnus are still living on that road and a lot of them in the community. So they have been very supportive. And this is how we came up with the idea of a community center. It also happened that during that time in 2009, that was another project one owned by Preservation Peetman, I believe. And they were doing all history of the alumni. So it was a perfect opportunity for them to come and to record the alumnus or history of their memory of attending the school. So we have that available for our website also, that all history of the alumni speaking of their experience during the schooling, during that time. Next, please. So here I am trying to show you past and future of what we are planning to do, what has happened so far with the school. And then after this, I'll tell you more about the grants that we have received. And as you can see, it was built in 1923. In 1954, it was a upper to 1954. It served at an elementary school. Then after that in 1954, it was sold to a private family. It was a private resident. 2003 is when they, the private people, the private owner moved out and sold it to the church. And it's owned by the St. John Baptist Church now, which is right beside the school. And so in 2009, we decided that we would organize a non-profit to manage and to restore the school. So we have the permission from the church to organize, to renovate and to set forth rules and regulations as to how we plan to utilize the school for the community. And so that in 2011, that's when we became a non-profit and we also receive our 501C3 status. So we're tax exempt in 2016. I mentioned before we got our state highway marker in 2017, 19, those two years was the process of getting nominated to the National Registry. And in 2018, you can see we were all this time since 2011, we were also raising money, having fund raises. So we had enough money in 2018 to install a septic system. That was before we even started applying for the federal grants. And so in 20, somewhere between 2018, 2019, we found out about the state registry, not the state registry, but the federal grants that were available. And that's when we began to apply in 2019. I believe we applied in 2019, we didn't receive it. But as my mom, Megan had stated that we had tried, I think the first mistake was that we had tried for a two larger amount. Then the first time that we had applied, we asked for the full amount that we needed. And so after we got, was an approve for that, we went back to our state office and we talked with them as well as we talked to the National Park Service about what we probably should do for the next step in resubmitting how to resubmit. So it was suggested that maybe we start out with a project and that's what we did. We submitted another grant and that one got approved for $75,000. So we're so excited that in 2020, we got our first grant from the National Regist, I'm from not, keep saying National Regist, sorry, from the state federal grant. And so Alpha American Civil Rights Grant, that's where we had our first one in 2020. And just to give you a little experience, my experience, it happened there. It wasn't that complicated, but it was too. And my advice, if you're going to apply, that you must be kind of computer illiterate because there's a lot of systems that you have to get registered, have yourself registered in and it is a necessity. I mean, if you're not registered even to apply for this grant, if you're not registering SAM.gov and grant.gov, I think it is, then you just don't get your application process. So it's very important that you do get registered in all of those necessary systems that is needed to register to apply. So later on as I, in my next slide, I'll tell you more about how we got selected by a organization within our community called the Building Goodness Foundation and how helpful they have been to us. In 2021, we're working with the National Park Service and with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. We have been approved for the design concept which Building Goodness helped us with. In Albemarle County, as I say, we're in the state of Virginia, in Albemarle County and we had to go through a process that's called a special use permit. We had to get that special use permit from the county and that was a long process, about three or four months but that we were successful at doing that and that is a process they require if you intend to use the building and the existing building for something other than what it was originally intended for. So that process was approved and we were thankful for that. And then in February of 2022, I believe it was, I know it was in 2022, but we got word that we had gotten approved for our second grant of $103,500 and we were rejoicing over that and then in April after everything had been reviewed we started our renovation. Next slide, please. So here I'm showing you some of the grants that we have received so far. We have received two Afro-American Civil Rights grants, as I say. We applied for three, we received two and so in red you'll see the amount, the dollar amount and what they have been used for. It's very important to work with the community as well because you have great support out there in your community, you just have to make sure you let them know what you're doing. And exposure, I said exposure, exposure, exposure, go to every conference that is available to you, go to every workshop that's available, contact all of your state representatives and local representatives and just let them know, invite them to activities that you have and anytime there's anything significant which is one of the requirements for the grant that once you receive it that you do have meteric covers where it's newspaper or the television station or whatever you announce that you have received these grants and you let people know what you're doing and that have been really helpful to us. My experience as well as the grants, as I said, we have had help, we have had volunteers because once you let people know what you're doing then you'll have people who will come for and volunteer to help you just like our grant writer. She's a pro boner, she's a professional grant writer but she's charging us nothing. She's Theresa Lewis and her email address is there not that she would do that for everybody but she will be blessed to have her to write our grants pro boner. And that don't mean that you turn everything over to that person because they still need you to do grant work and background work. And I find that the greatest thing for me was not actually knowing what it consists, what it consists of to write a grant. So I took a grant writing classes from one of the organization in the community. And that was very helpful because as she began to write the grants and began to ask me questions and I knew basically what was needed, what she needed. And so on top of her writing the grants we in the background, the board members and other people associated with the board, we were interviewing the contractors to get the calls. We were talking to people to get endorsements. We were taking pictures and providing them to her. We got the church, we needed a consent letter from the church, we got that and other documents. So just being available to that person if you're gonna get someone to help you then you have to help them also so they can be a help to you. So I found that to be very useful. My experience just knowing how to write a grant and knowing what is necessary. That has been helpful because a lot of the smaller grants and some of the larger ones that have been private donors had to write the grants up. So it's been very helpful, very, very helpful. And I think one of the experiences that I have learned is that you have to be patient even after you receive your grant because it's not like, so as you get that letter saying you've been approved that you have the money available to you. There's some other processes that has to be done. And so reviews, compliance reviews, say the National Environment Policy Act, that's a review that has to be done. The section 106 review and the 110 review. And these are all things that you'll learn about and know that you have to get the approval, their reviews and their certification before the money is released to you. Our grant manager, Mala, Mala Collins has been excellent. I mean, she's always there to help us to explain what's going on and to just help us whatever way is necessary because as our grant manager, we go to her for everything. And before the money is released, she has to be certain that it's gonna be used properly. And we've met all the qualification that's necessary even after the fund, the grants get approved. So we've been very grateful to Mala. Thank you, Mala, really been a great help. And we're still working with Mala. And as we begin to work with our second grant, she is still there and very, very helpful. And as I said, I will, at working with the people in the community, if you could show the next slide, Maggie. These are a group of people called Building Goodness Foundation, an organization called Building Goodness Foundation. And we have been selected by this organization for design and construct, as a design and construction team. Without them, we probably wouldn't be as far as we are now because they have been so helpful. As you can see, these are professional people that offer their service pro bono. And we have an architect, Jody LaHindra, a lot of you probably know him. He is a historian himself. He's a retired historian. And these other people who have come and volunteered their time to do the design work for the grant, the second grant that we have, the electrician, the plumbing, the HVAC people and then a contractor who is just working with us to make sure that all our design work has been approved and the process of picking out the best qualified contractors that have been done. And so we are just very, very thankful to them. And they're still working with us every day, working to make sure that the contractors are doing what they're supposed to do and the work is being done professionally. So it's been really a great experience to have them to work with us. And not only have these people been very helpful, we had a fundraiser by an organization in the community. These are people that have known a lot of us for years. It's called the Casual Heart Club fundraiser. And doing that fundraiser, over $145,000 was raised for interior carpentry renovations. And that is helping us to complete the renovation even though we have interior additional requirements, that's a big help. And we will continue to work forward, to move forward in renovating this building and just making it available to the public. Next slide, please. Okay, so as the St. John Family Life and Fitness Center, my final slide here, what we plan to do with our new adapted use of the school, the new adapted use for the school will be, we want to continue the legacy of education that was established in the past. But we want to continue it with the education of our mind, our body and our soul. It will serve as a fitness center, a museum and a health resource library and a community meeting center for the community and all the surrounding areas. Everyone will be welcome. It's not just for the alumni, it's not just for that community, excuse me, but everyone who wishes to participate, we will be encouraging everyone to come and participate with us. We will offer exercise equipment and training with that equipment. We will have exercise classes who want to help promote a better lifestyle, a healthier lifestyle. We have a resource library with artifacts and computers for research. The opportunity for you to learn more about our experience of African-American in our museum because we'll have artifacts and we'll have the oral history that you'll be able to listen to and we'll be there to tell you stories, our stories and we hope you'll come in and tell us some of your stories and you can just walk down memory lane with the alumni because they'll be participating. They will be in the community and they will be happy with the center. And it also, it will be available for special events for many years, special events. So we're hoping that in the very near future that you will have the opportunity to visit us and to enjoy us. And we are so thankful to Megan, the National Park Service for those grants, which is making this possible. And we hope to see you soon. Thank you. Thank you, Becky. That was just a wonderful story and you hit on so many good points that I think all grantees need to remember that it's not just the application and getting the check, but there's a lot of work that goes into it. And it's amazing to see how you brought so many community resources together and getting the guidance from the architects and the story ends. You're just, you're a shining star. Come on. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I think we are about at time. So, Jim, did you want to share anything after hearing all of that or we can? I do have a couple of thoughts that I'd like to bring up. I appreciate how Becky explained her working with the Virginia State Historic Preservation Office and to get through the National Register process. I would like to point out that each state has a different process and different timelines. So your experience may be a little different from state to state. The SHPO is there to help you through the process so that eventually your nomination can be on my desk and I can happily sign it. Right. And that's our ultimate goal. So get these wonderful places nominated, listed and then give them grant funding to help preserve them. So I think that we're all, it's a team effort as you can see. And so I want to just thank everybody. Thank Jim and Becky both for your presentations today. This has been wonderful and hopefully you will all have lots of questions and know where to find us. This is where to find Jim and I. Just an underscore in between our names and then Becky's website is here if you want to find out more information on her fabulous project and maybe get her words of wisdom on your own. And then just if you need basic grant information the best way to find us is through sending us an email at steelpig, remember the pig at MPS.gov or calling our main number and we have an entire team that checks this multiple times a day and we're happy to get back to you. So I do hope all of you will think about taking advantage of these grant funds that we have right now. We don't know that we'll always have them. So now's the time to come in and get this funding to support your projects and work with us to help increase the diversity of our national registry and save these important places. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you. Thank you.