Four Rivers Heritage Area Announces Three Spring Mini-Grant Awards to Non-Profit Organizations in Annapolis and Southern Anne Arundel County

Annapolis, MD — Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County announces three new mini-grant awards to local heritage-related nonprofit organizations as part of our spring mini-grant opportunity. The grants totaled $3,625 for projects totaling $13,262, making the combined total for FY2013 mini-grants awarded (both fall and spring) to $23,075, for total projects of $182,907. This matching mini-grants program, made possible for the tenth year through financial support from the City of Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority, leverages other funding to assist local heritage related non-profit organizations to create new programs, activities, and events that build upon heritage-based interpretive themes, foster collaborative partnerships, and enhance local cultural historic resources and heritage tourism. Organizations and projects approved for FY2013 Spring Mini-grant awards are:  Anne Arundel County Trust for Preservation, Inc., with the Lost Towns Project: The Traveling Archaeology Experience, a portable archaeology display and interactive presentation highlighting discoveries at sites in the heritage area.  Caritas Society of St. John’s College, in partnership with the Annapolis History Consortium: “Annapolis, 1863: Are We Never to Be Free Again?”, support for a dramatic production based on primary sources from Annapolis in the year 1863. London Town Foundation, Inc.,: “A Greener Approach to Heritage Tourism: Creating a Garden Guide and Plant Identification Signs at Historic London Town and Gardens,” a brochure and plant identification markers for a multi-phase project that will provide self-guided interpretation of the gardens Four Rivers: The Heritage Area of Annapolis, London Town & South County, one of Marylands 12 certified heritage areas, is a partnership among the State of Maryland, Anne Arundel County, the City of Annapolis, the town of Highland Beach, and local historic sites, heritage organizations, and heritage-related businesses, to encourage economic vitality through historic preservation and heritage tourism. For more information, please contact Executive Director Carol Benson at the Four Rivers office at 410-222-1805, or cell: 410-627-6018; or visit our website at www.chesapeakecrossroads.org.