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Alan Popovich will receive the Jacqueline J. Melander Award for outstanding and long-term advocacy of and commitment to historic preservation through preservation architecture projects in many of Centre County’s historic structures. Photo provided
The Centre County Historical Society (CCHS) hosts its 32nd annual John. H. Ziegler Historic Preservation Awards, Sunday, Jan. 31. The virtual event recognizes individuals and organizations throughout Centre County for their efforts preserving and interpreting the county’s history.
“The 32nd Historic Preservation Awards … was named after a long-time board member, John Ziegler,” Mary Sorenson, CCHS executive director, says. “He was not only a long-time board member, but a community advocate and someone with a passion for historic preservation in our county… It’s in his honor that we’re carrying this program forward.”
This year’s award recipients were picked from an array of public nominations, via a committee consisting of CCHS board members and others from the community. Honorees include:
“We just feel it’s so important to encourage and promote people who are doing historic preservation activities or preserving histories in other ways, whether it’s through a story or preserving a building or an activity,” Sorenson says. “I think it’s great to continue to recognize this is happening in Centre County. We have such a rich history here,”.
The 2021 awards ceremony looks a bit different from years past, held virtually via Zoom and condensed for a shorter overall event. The event is also limited to 100 attendees, but will be live-streamed on YouTube on the CCHS YouTube channel and recorded by C-NET for airing at a later date and online.
“We are thankful and want to recognize the ongoing C-NET sponsorship of this program by the Centre County Commissioners,” Sorenson adds.
She says the awards ceremony has typically lasted for about an hour and a half but that felt too long for a virtual program.
“We’ve scaled it back a little bit, so it’ll be about 45 minutes to an hour, to make it more manageable for people to sit through,” Sorenson says. “It will be primarily narrated by Katie O’Toole and she’ll have gotten quotes from various award recipients. This year, it’s just about doing the best we can and making sure we continue this tradition and really honoring the people who are doing the good work of history in this county.”
The virtual ceremony is only one of many changes the CCHS has been forced to make as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have not been open to the public,” Sorenson says. “Of our docents that give regular tours, many are in that high-risk category for COVID-19 and we just decided pretty early on that we needed to wait until this is at a point where we’ll feel safe to open again with volunteers.”
The society is still offering virtual programming, including a Zoom lecture series. The next upcoming lecture in the series takes place Feb. 28 and focuses on Pennsylvania’s connection to the history of cable television. Registration details will be available in February at centrehistory.org.
Those interested in attending the 32nd annual John. H. Ziegler Historic Preservation Awards, Jan. 31, can register to attend at centrehistory.org/preservationawards. Nomination forms are also available on the website year-round, for those who wish to nominate an honoree for next year’s awards.
“CCHS has been truly honored to host this program for 32 years and feel it is important to bring to light the good work of people in Centre County keeping history alive through programming, publications, volunteerism and historic preservation,” Sorenson says.
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