By Mike Faher
If you know someone who is dedicated to preserving or promoting local history, Johnstown Area Heritage Association wants to hear about it.
The association is accepting nominations for its first “heritage preservation awards,” which will be presented April 10 at Pasquerilla Conference Center downtown.
Association administrators hope the ceremony will start a “new tradition,” and they plan to give as many as three awards annually.
“We have purposefully kept the guidelines rather broad,” association spokeswoman Shelley Johansson said.
“People can contribute to preservation in so many different ways.”
A volunteer committee will decide who gets the heritage prizes. The list of criteria include:
• Nominees must have contributed to preserving, celebrating or promoting Johnstown’s heritage.
• Those contributions can be made personally or professionally. Award winners can be individuals, corporations or organizations.
• A nominee does not have to be a local native or a resident of the city, but “must have a clear relationship with its people and its past,” administrators said.
• No awards will be granted posthumously, aside from “rare exceptions” that committee members may allow.
Johansson said the nominees could be people who are well-known or “people who haven’t necessarily garnered as much recognition.”
Nominations, which should include a short explanation of why a person or entity deserves recognition, must be postmarked by Dec. 18. They can be sent to JAHA Heritage Awards Committee, P.O. Box 1889, Johnstown, Pa. 15907.
On the same day as the awards dinner, association administrators also plan to unveil a new Heritage Discovery Center exhibit titled “Did You Know?” The second-floor display will be designed to highlight “little-known facts” about Johnstown.
“It is a celebration of what makes Johnstown unique,” Johansson said.
To nominate
a person
Nominations for Johnstown’s new heritage preservation awards can be sent to:
JAHA Heritage Awards
Committee
P.O. Box 1889
Johnstown, Pa. 15907
