The History Channel® Announces Acadian Memorial Foundation as 2006 Save Our History National Awards Finalist

Finalists Receive Trip to Washington, D.C. for National Awards Luncheon Hosted by Save Our History National Spokesperson Cokie Roberts

ST. MARTINVILLE, La., May 19, 2006 — The History Channel today announced the Acadian Memorial Foundation (AMF) in St. Martinville, La. as one of 10 finalists for the Save Our History National Awards to honor local communities and classrooms that demonstrate outstanding commitment to history education and preservation of local history. The finalists will each receive a trip to Washington, D.C for history-themed activities, including private tours of the White House, trolley visits to the national monuments, and culminating with the June 5 awards luncheon hosted by best-selling author and political commentator Cokie Roberts.

First Lady Laura Bush, representing Preserve America, will personally meet with and present three finalists with an additional grand prize National Award that recognizes their outstanding work in the following categories:

• The Save Our History Time Warner Cable Preservation Award – a $10,000 award to one exemplary historical organization that demonstrates outstanding commitment to preservation and history education.
• The Save Our History Classroom Award - a $10,000 cash prize to the school or educational organization that demonstrates exceptional commitment to the program through projects and implementation of lesson plans.
• The Save Our History Lowe’s Community Award – a $10,000 cash prize to the school, preservation organization or community group that displays superior commitment to their project and community.

The History Channel chose the 10 finalists from a pool of 26 grant winners that demonstrated their dedication to instituting innovative education projects designed to bring communities together and engage children in the preservation of their local history. In the first two years of the National Grant Program, The History Channel has received funding requests exceeding $8 million from history organizations representing 50 states and the District of Columbia. In 2006, The History Channel will have contributed more than $500,000 in grant funding toward this cause.

This year’s 2006 grants are a diverse and extensive representation of significant American history spanning more than 300 years in 26 communities. Projects range from tracing our nation’s revolutionary beginnings, to investigating the history and culture of a community’s racially charged past, from the civil war to the civil rights movement.

In January, The History Channel awarded the AMF a $9,979 Save Our History to research and develop stories about the lives of children of the Acadian refugees. The AMF worked with local middle and high school students to research the histories and genealogies for many of the 1,497 Acadian children who were forced to flee their farms in Nova Scotia by the English in 1755. The students produce “first-hand” stories about the lives of the children and recorded the best stories in both French and English.

According to Brenda Comeaux Trahan, Curator Director of the Acadian Memorial, “The children will finally speak through the recordings that will be incorporated into an interactive audio program on artist Robert Dafford’s mural, ‘The Arrival of the Acadians’ at the Memorial. The project will be unveiled to the public on August 15, the National Day of the Acadians”!

"This project has tapped a groundswell of support and collaboration unimagined by us at the start,” said, Sylvia Bienvenu, educational coordinator at the Acadian Memorial. “It has helped to fulfill the dream of Acadian Memorial founders Jane Bulliard and Pat Resweber to unite our extended Acadian community to research and disseminate the true stories of the Acadians. The Save Our History Education Guide served as a springboard for the ‘Let the Children Speak!’ curriculum developed for the project. It helped us reach out to so many community organizations for assistance to our student researchers in this difficult quest - librarians, clerks of court, historians, genealogists, state and local parks personnel, area Acadian museums, Acadian family associations, and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.”

The curriculum will be made available online for other students to assist in further research. The Louisiana Folk life Program within the LA Department of Culture, Recreation, and Tourism, will conduct Teacher In-services this summer for using the curriculum. The Acadian Heritage Week Committee will add the curriculum to its agenda and the Director of Louisiana History Archives requested placement of student stories in Louisiana and Quebec Archives. The Council For the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) will fund translation of the curriculum into French, then upload it to the French Immersion USA website.

Dr. Carl Brasseaux, Center for Louisiana Studies at the University of Louisiana Lafayette, states, “The Acadian Memorial’s Save Our History project has provided local school children with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reconnect in a meaningful way with their ancestors through a hands-on examination of the manuscripts documenting the wanderings and resettlement of the Acadian exiles, victims of a terrible ethnic cleansing exercise in their native Nova Scotia. “This is particularly important in Louisiana, where Acadian history remains a largely forgotten footnote in state-adopted textbooks, despite the fact that the exiles’ descendants constitute approximately one-fourth of the state’s population”!

Warren A. Perrin, President of Codofil, " I am delighted to see the involvement of children in the promotion of our beautiful Francophone culture. It is a very wothwhile project that will for many years to come inspire our youth in joining our work to maintain the unique Acadian heritage of our state.

The History Channel created the Save Our History Grant Program as an extension of the Save Our History philanthropic initiative and is committed to inspiring and motivating local communities to learn about and take an active role in the preservation of their past through projects involving artifacts, oral histories, sites, museums or landmarks that exist in their own neighborhoods.

About Save Our History Educational Materials
The History Channel, in collaboration with leading educators from the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), developed a comprehensive Educators’ Manual containing standards-based lesson plans, enrichment activities, and resources that help elementary, middle and high school teachers connect American History content to their local history. The manual guides teachers to engage students in hands-on, experiential preservation projects. The Educator’s Manual is supplemented by monthly Save Our History lesson plans sent via email to educators who register online to receive them at www.saveourhistory.com. To date, more than 40,000 educators at schools, youth groups, history museums, and historic sites have used the educational materials to teach over 1.2 Million students about their local history and the importance of preserving it.

Program Sponsor
For 2006, Lowe’s has signed on as the primary sponsor of Save Our History, as the official “home improvement” sponsor. Lowe’s will also be the on-air sponsor for the program.

About Lowe’s
With fiscal year 2005 sales of $36.5 billion, Lowe's Companies, Inc. is a FORTUNE® 50 company that serves approximately 11 million customers a week at more than 1,100 home improvement stores in 48 states. Based in Mooresville, N.C., the 59-year old company is the second-largest home improvement retailer in the world. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

About Save Our History
Save Our History is an Emmy® Award-winning strategic philanthropic initiative of The History Channel that launched in 1998, designed to further historic preservation and history education. The program supplements the teaching of history in America’s classrooms, educates the public on the importance of historical preservation and motivates communities across the country to help save endangered local historic treasures. The Save Our History campaign includes original documentaries, special teachers’ materials, national promotion on The History Channel, broadband activities in schools, and has worked with The Smithsonian Institution, National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National World War II Memorial, American Rivers and The White House 200th Anniversary.

Additional information about the grassroots Save Our History program, including a comprehensive school manual containing suggested lesson plans for grades two through 12 and details about working with local preservation organizations can also be found at www.saveourhistory.com.

THE HISTORY CHANNEL
The History Channel® is one of the leading cable television networks featuring compelling original, non-fiction specials and series that bring history to life in a powerful and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. The network provides an inviting place where people experience history in new and exciting ways enabling them to connect their lives today to the great lives and events of the past that provide a blueprint for the future. The History Channel has earned six News and Documentary Emmy® Awards and received the prestigious Governor’s Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network’s Save Our History® campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel reaches more than 89 million Nielsen subscribers. The website is located at www.History.com.