FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: MAY 1, 2006
Contact: Donna Dudley, Executive Director

 

Annapolis, MD –In a Rose Garden ceremony this morning, President and Mrs. Bush announced that the Maryland Heritage Areas Program has received a 2006 Preserve America Presidential Award for heritage tourism. This prestigious award, sponsored by the First Lady and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation as part of the Preserve America program, is given annually to four organizations, businesses, government, and individuals nationwide for exemplary projects that demonstrate commitment to the protection and interpretation of America’s cultural or natural heritage assets. Each year, only two organizations are selected for activities advancing heritage tourism. Maryland Department of Planning Secretary Audrey Scott, Chair of the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority and under whose Department the program is administered, was on hand to receive the award on behalf of Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr.
The Maryland Heritage Areas Program was one of 85 nominations submitted from across the country for this national award. This is the third year that the Preserve America Presidential Awards are conferred in May, National Preservation Month.

 

Now in its tenth year of operation and one of only a few such programs in the country, the Maryland Heritage Areas Program contains 10 certified heritage areas, representing 18 counties and 62 municipalities. Three more heritage areas are in the development process. The program helps communities use heritage tourism to build their economies while protecting, developing, and promoting their cultural, historical and natural resources. In order to become a certified heritage area, communities must complete a heritage area management plan and ensure that all local governments located within the boundary of the area adopt it as an amendment to their comprehensive land use plan. Once certified by the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, a heritage area and its partners are eligible to receive matching state grants and low interest loans for capital and non-capital projects and activities related to that plan. A recent financial analysis indicated that every grant dollar invested in the program generates a total of $4.61 in annual, ongoing state and local tax revenues.

Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County, one of the first Maryland heritage areas to be certified, has brought more than $1.132 million in matching state grants into the community. With support from the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Four Rivers created the first heritage area mini grants program in the state, now in its third year, as well as the first heritage awards program. Roots & Tides: A Journey Through Southern Anne Arundel County, our audio CD travelogue tour of Southern Anne Arundel County, was the first heritage area tourism product to win the Maryland Tourism Council’s Best New Product Award and was submitted as part of the Presidential Award nomination application.

 

Through Four Rivers and the Maryland Heritage Areas Program, capital grants have been awarded to local partners including Historic Annapolis’ History Quest, Historic London Town & Gardens, Annapolis Maritime Museum, and the Annapolis & Anne Arundel County Conference & Visitors Bureau. Non-capital heritage area grants have benefited the Galesville Heritage Museum, Shady Side Rural Heritage Society, Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, and other nonprofit heritage organizations. Also, Discover Annapolis Tours, an Annapolis heritage tourism business, received a low interest loan through the program. In 2005, Four Rivers successfully nominated Annapolis as one of the National Trust for Preservation’s “Dozen Distinctive Destinations” and has coordinated southern Anne Arundel County’s “South County Sundays” for the past three years.

 

President and Mrs. Bush’s remarks are available at www.whitehouse.gov; see also www.preserveamerica.gov for a press release from the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. For more information on Four Rivers and the Maryland Heritage Areas Program, contact Donna Dudley, Executive Director, at 410-222-1805.