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New Deal Festival Celebrates Arthurdale Heritage’s 25th Anniversary

Arthurdale Heritage President Sarah Barnes (left) and AHI Executive Director Jeanne Goodman (right) display Governor Manchin's proclamation declaring July 'Arthurdale Heritage Month.'

Arthurdale Heritage (AHI) is celebrating its Silver Anniversary this July at its New Deal Festival. To kick off the celebration, West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin issued a proclamation declaring July ‘Arthurdale Heritage Month.’

“We are delighted that Governor Manchin has honored our beautiful community by declaring July ‘Arthurdale Heritage Month,’” said AHI President Sarah Barnes. “This recognition helps us spotlight the important role our state played during the New Deal era.  Eleanor Roosevelt would be proud to know that her ‘little village’ is doing so well and telling the story of what she set out to accomplish,” Barnes said.

The New Deal Festival is Saturday, July 10th and features artisan demonstrators, a craft market, living history actors, an antique car, truck, and tractor show, quilt show, kids activities, live entertainment, barbecued chicken dinners, and more. More information about the New Deal Festival is online at: http://www.newdealfestival.org.

Throughout its 25 years, AHI has tirelessly worked to restore and preserve the New Deal Homestead Community of Arthurdale. The organization started as a grass-roots community group in 1985, raising money through donations from local residents and businesses. Today, AHI has successfully restored and preserved five buildings comprising the New Deal Homestead Museum. AHI also has three major capital projects underway to restore five additional structures.

“Arthurdale Heritage has truly been a grassroots organization.  Those of us involved in 2010 are so grateful to the determined group who started the organization 25 years ago and the community who supported it. They worked so hard to raise every penny to restore what is now the New Deal Homestead Museum today.  The community of Arthurdale is such a wonderful place to live – due, in no small part, to the efforts of this organization.  Without AHI, the community would be another town with abandoned buildings and struggling to survive.  The people of Arthurdale are to be commended for their efforts over the years by taking such pride in their community and seizing the opportunity to tell their story,” Barnes said.

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin issued this proclamation declaring July 'Arthurdale Heritage Month.'