Most people, says Dan Holland, are actually preservationists at heart. But it can take a bit of effort to help them realize just how important it is to preserve our local history. And it takes some education to show them just how much positive impact they can have in their neighborhoods.
Holland's organization, the
Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh, is taking another step toward furthering that awareness and education. On April 10, the YPA is hosting their second annual Preserve Pittsburgh Summit at the Frick Fine Arts building on the Pitt campus in Oakland.
"People are looking for more ways to get involved and become active" in preservation, Holland says. "We're trying to fuel what we think is a growing movement both locally and nationally. … People love their neighborhoods. But not everyone knows exactly how to preserve them."
One highlight at the summit: Four students from Trinity High School (Washington, Pa.) and a student from Knoch High School (Butler County) will receive awards for their work producing videos about preservation. View those videos
here and
here. And the Michael Eversmeyer Promise Award, named for a longtime Pittsburgh preservationist who passed away last year, we will be awarded to a group of students at Propel Andrew Street High School in Munhall for their efforts to document the past, present, and future of Homestead's East Eighth Avenue. (They're pictured at left.)
"Preservation is very much American. I think from the earliest days, from women in the 1850s trying to save Mount Vernon to today... it's simply reusing what you already have," says Holland, who is YPA's CEO. "That's a very American concept … It's really being resourceful, being concerned and wise about how we use what we have."
Sign up to receive Pop City each week.
Writer: Melissa Rayworth
Source: Dan Holland, YPA
Image of award winning Propel students courtesy of YPA