Paul Szmal: And welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It is 816 and I am joined by Kate Grindstaff from the Seward House Museum. Morning Kate, how are you this morning?
Kate Grinstein: Good morning Paul, I'm good, how are you?
Paul Szmal: Good, good. And the first thing that I saw in the list of topics that you sent me that immediately got my attention was ribbon cutting, which is always a celebratory time. So what was the ribbon cutting for?
Kate Grinstein: Yeah, so our ribbon cutting is actually coming up just in three days. It's going to be on May 16th and that is going to be for our barn and carriage house rehabilitation. So this is a project we've been working on, I mean really for a decade at this point, but we've been under construction here at the Seward House for over the past year and our project is now finally finished and those two buildings in the back of our main house, those are now going to be open to the public and that ribbon cutting to show all of those changes is going to be on May 16th at 11 a.m. and it's free, open to the public, so it's going to be really exciting.
Paul Szmal: Wow, a decade in the making, that's a long time to be working on a project.
Kate Grinstein: Yes, definitely. And our Director of Operations, Mitch Maniccia, who has been heading this project, he's going to be talking on May 21st about this entire process if anybody is interested in hearing about it, that's going to be a whole lunchtime lecture that's going to be at Equal Rights Heritage Center at noon, also free.
Paul Szmal: So what was part of that decade-long process? Was some of that just like, you know, permitting and construction issues or was it acquisition of materials to put on display?
Kate Grinstein: Yeah, so it was mostly, so we had to get a lot of paperwork really set up, so figuring out what exactly needed to be restored, what was historically accurate. We also had to do a lot of internal policy so that we could apply for some major grants to get the amount of funding that we would need, and then just bringing all of that together and then, of course, the design, the engineering process. We also added in geothermal heating to that, to the new buildings. So all of that combined, plus all of the hurdles of managing a project that is a historic structure, so that adds so many more levels of detail.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, understood. We're talking with Kate Grindstaff from the Seward House Museum here on FLX Morning. The Passport to History series is continuing.
Kate Grinstein: Yes, it is. We are actually going to have our second group coming in today from Casey Park Elementary. Passport to History is our annual program that most of the historic and cultural sites of the city of Auburn, including the city itself, support. It's basically a program where all the fourth graders from the Auburn Enlarged City School District come to all of our sites for free, and they are welcome to do this throughout the entire summer until the very last day that they are considered fourth graders. So after their field trips, they will go home. They'll have their passport booklet that they have to get stamped by going to each site. So they and their parents, their families, they're allowed to come back to all of these sites over the summer for free. Everybody gets in for free.
Paul Szmal: You know, I think that is so cool. I remember doing a couple of Erie Canal trips when I was in school back out toward Rome, and I always enjoyed learning a little bit about the history and the background of things. So that's a neat program that they've put together, and I'm glad to see that you're an integral part of it.
Kate Grinstein: Definitely, definitely.
Paul Szmal: The summer camp is getting ready to fire up here as well, too.
Kate Grinstein: Yes, yes, and we still have some spots available if anybody would like their child to attend. It's going to be from July 21st to 25th, and it is, again, a continuation of our annual summer camp collaboration with the Cayuga Museum, Seymour Library, and the National Park Service. So it's a five-day day camp where children around the ages of eight to ten are welcome to come and learn about the history of their hometown and participate in lots of really fun activities in that learning process, like a Victorian tea. This year we're going to focus on architecture, do a lot of playing with Legos, stop-motion film, do some archaeology. So it's going to be a really fun time, and if you are interested in signing your child up for that, you can visit the Seward House website, and we have a page for that.
Paul Szmal: Oh, archaeology. Does that mean dusting things off with toothbrushes?
Kate Grinstein: I believe it does. Such meticulous work, but such great reward when you actually find something.
Paul Szmal: I wanted to ask you about Fannie Seward Day.
Kate Grinstein: Yeah, so Fannie Seward Day is a specific program that we have for Girl Scouts at the Seward House, and this is going to be coming up on Saturday, August 2nd, and registration for that event now is actually live on Eventbrite, and it is specifically for brownies and juniors. So elementary age kids to come to the Seward House and learn about Fannie Seward and how her life and her legacy impacted the world around her and how kids that are very similar to Fannie's age, when she impacted history by writing in her diaries, writing letters that give us so much content for our interpretation today, how kids can make a difference in today's world. So they will be also doing lots of different hands-on activities. They'll get to go through the museum and do a scavenger hunt. We're going to be doing some embroidery. We're going to be doing some paper mache. So it's going to be a very fun time. They'll also earn a patch. They'll earn a badge, depending on whether they're a brownie or a junior, and some other fun items to take home. So if people are interested in that, that is a completely free event, and it is through NYPEN, Girl Scouts, and it is available for registration on our Eventbrite.
Paul Szmal: All right. And do you have an upcoming book talk as well?
Kate Grinstein: We do. That's actually our very next event. It's only in two days, and that is a book talk for A Hell of a Storm, which is a book by David Brown, basically discussing Seward's involvement in the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. So that'll probably be very intense. That's going to be at 6 o'clock. So it's not at the normal time of our book talks or lunchtime lectures, but that is also going to be at the Equal Rights Heritage Center, $10 for members, $15 for non-members, and again, that is at 6 o'clock p.m.
Paul Szmal: Awesome. Awesome. As always, I appreciate having you on, Kate, and if people want to find out more information about any of the stuff that we've talked about this morning, where can they go?
Kate Grinstein: They can go to our website, SewardHouse.org.
Paul Szmal: Awesome. Thank you so much, Kate. Good to talk to you again.
Kate Grinstein: All right. Thanks.
Paul Szmal: All right. It is 824 on FLX Morning.
