The Museum of Ashe County History is the recipient of a $1000.00 grant from the Walmart Good Works

Community Grant program. This money will be used as part of an on-going Museum commitment to provide audio-visual equipment for presentations to school and community groups, as well as for in-house displays. Assistant Manager Sandy Roten, the Walmart Good Works Coordinator, says, "We try to touch and help as many people as possible through our grants program."

Museum President Gwen Ashley thanked the Walmart grant committee for their support in preserving and sharing the history of Ashe County. According to Curator Don Long, Walmart's grant will be part of a program to digitize, store and share images, video and sound recordings about Ashe County people and their lives.

Mr. Francis Grimaldi, of Lansing, recently provided a great example of the kinds of material the Museum is collecting. A professional videographer, Mr. Grimaldi recorded about 2 hours of video tape during the last week of official County business in the 1904 Courthouse, including scenes of the opening of a court session, interviews with County employees, and scenes of the building, its offices and personnel at work.

Mr. Grimaldi has donated copies of his recordings to the Museum, where they will provide a permanent record of how business was conducted in the building that served Ashe County for almost a century. The Museum of Ashe County History always welcomes new material. Photos, documents and recordings can be copied and returned if donors want to keep the originals.

To share pictures, sound recordings, motion picture film or videos, contact The Museum of Ashe County History at (336) 846-1904, e-mail ashemuseum@skybest.com or visit the Temporary Museum across from the old 1904 Courthouse building on Main Street in Jefferson.