AFA Will Serve as Grant Evaluator in Alabama for the William G. Pomeroy Foundation®
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Intriguing stories from Alabama’s rich heritage of folklore will be featured on roadside markers at sites across the state thanks to a partnership between the Alabama Folklife Association (AFA) and the William G. Pomeroy Foundation.
AFA will serve as a grant evaluator for the Pomeroy Foundation’s expanding national Legends & Lore Roadside Marker Grant Program, helping to put Alabama folklore in the spotlight. Established by the Pomeroy Foundation in 2015, Legends & Lore is designed to promote cultural tourism and commemorate legends and folklore as an important part of the historical past.
“The Pomeroy Foundation is thrilled to partner with the Alabama Folklife Association on our expanding Legends & Lore program,” said Bill Pomeroy, founder and trustee of the Pomeroy Foundation. “We feel this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase the folklore near and dear to Alabama. We’re proud to work with your communities in celebrating and preserving your folklore and legends.”
The Pomeroy Foundation is a private, grant-making foundation based in Syracuse, N.Y. that helps people celebrate their community’s history through a variety of signage grant programs, including Legends & Lore. The Foundation’s grants cover the entire cost of a marker, pole, and shipping.
As a Legends & Lore grant evaluator, AFA will be responsible for reviewing applications, as well as confirming the legitimacy and accuracy of folklore and legends that applicants in Alabama intend to commemorate on a marker. Legends & Lore marker grants are now available to 501(c)(3) organizations, nonprofit academic institutions and municipalities in Alabama.
Working with its first partner organization, the New York Folklore Society, the Pomeroy Foundation’s Legends & Lore program has already helped more than 35 communities in New York State to commemorate their own fascinating local stories. One of those Legends & Lore markers celebrates Ichabod Crane and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” It’s said that this famous Washington Irving character was based on a real schoolteacher named Jesse Merwin in Kinderhook, New York.
About the AFA
The AFA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created in 1980 to document, preserve, and promote the folkways of Alabama through research, education, and programs. A partner program of the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the AFA fulfills the mission by funding scholarly research and the Archive of Alabama Folk Culture; presenting and disseminating folk and traditional arts through CDs, publications, programs, exhibits, and web sites; and providing scholars, authors, artists, and educators with the resources, skills, and tools to enhance their contributions and carry out projects consistent with the mission of the AFA. Our web sites and social media provide a platform to promote traditional artists, events, festivals, folkways, and local organizations and institutions dedicated to the field.
About the Pomeroy Foundation
The William G. Pomeroy Foundation is a private, grant-making foundation established in 2005. The Foundation is committed to supporting the celebration and preservation of community history; and to raising awareness, supporting research and improving the quality of care for patients and their families who are facing a blood cancer diagnosis. To date, the Foundation has awarded more than 700 grants for historic signage in New York and beyond. Visit: www.wgpfoundation.org
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