A new National Museum of the Great Lakes program is intended to give Lucas County grade-schoolers a stronger connection to Great Lakes history.
The five-year “All Aboard for History!” program aimed at students in the third through sixth grades offers complimentary visits to the museum or classroom visits by museum representatives.
“The National Museum of the Great Lakes is committed to ensuring school systems throughout the Toledo metropolitan area have access to quality, curriculum-based experiences promoting social studies and history,” Christopher Gillcrist, the East Toledo museum’s executive director, said in announcing the program.
“We want to make sure kids have access to first-hand experiences which build their interest, knowledge, and passion around the Great Lakes and its historical significance,” Mr. Gillcrist said.
Two $10,000 grants — one from Key Bank, the other from the Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation — have been obtained to start the program.
Cleveland-Cliffs, best known as a major mining and metals-refining company in the Great Lakes region and historically the operator of a fleet of freighters to support that business, is currently building an iron-processing plant near the Port of Toledo. The plant is scheduled to begin operations next summer.
“The Cleveland-Cliffs Foundation has a long history of supporting quality educational initiatives within the local communities in which we operate to help prepare youth for their future,” Ania Ediger, the company’s manager of government relations, said in the museum’s statement.
The company also is a past owner of the museum’s display freighter, the Col. James M. Schoonmaker, which Cleveland-Cliffs operated as the Willis B. Boyer. Cleveland-Cliffs sold the freighter as surplus to the city of Toledo in 1987.
The museum estimates that the program can serve “up to 8,000 local students.”
Teachers interested in making arrangements for field trips to the museum or classroom presentations should visit nmgl.org/all-aboard or call 419-214-5000, as should individuals or corporations seeking to donate to the program, the museum said.
First Published October 27, 2019, 9:58 p.m.
