The Georgia Writers Museum (GWM) welcomed its new 2023-24 Junior Board last Friday, made up of Rebekah Esau’s Service Leadership class at Putnam County High School. The GWM’s third junior board will create a class project involving the museum during the school year.
“We are very fortunate to be a part of a vibrant, tremendous activity between and among the Georgia Writer’s Museum and Putnam County High School,” GWM board member Jim Cahoon said.
The two previous GWM Junior Board groups put on very different, yet equally successful events that incorporated the students’ interests. This welcome meeting for the third GWM junior board was intended to encourage and inspire its members to start thinking of event ideas that both utilize GWM’s resources and align with what captivates the students.
The first GWM Junior Board, class of ’22, hosted a GWM Meet the Author event with authors Tina McElroy Ansa and Wanda Lloyd. They spoke about their co-authored book Meeting at the Table: African-American
Women Write on Race, Culture, and Community. More than 100 students were invited to the event. The Junior Board also made lesson plans and taught chapters of the book to their peers at school.
The class of ’23 GWM junior board held a “Book Fair LIVE & DRIVE” event, which was an interactive book fair for more than 100 primary school students. It included children’s book readings, performances from authors, a special raffle, books for sale, and more.
In this year’s welcome meeting, students, some of whom had never been inside GWM before, were encouraged to explore the many exhibits focusing on Georgia authors.
Museum manager and educator Amanda Vining instructed students to write down anything that inspired or interested them for an activity later. Junior Board members spent time going through exhibits and learning about local authors Alice Walker, Joel Chandler Harris, and Flannery O’Connor, among others, before regrouping.
The program then moved down the street to Barrel 118, where students were provided lunch before GWM officers and board members made their presentations to the class. Cahoon discussed the importance of having committees to form events, which the junior board will have to do themselves during this school year.
The meeting continued with words from GWM Board Member Chip Bell, who spoke on the importance of providing excellent customer service and creating entertaining, educational exhibits. He hoped to get students excited about the museum and their future involvement.
Students were then instructed to use words they wrote down while in the museum to create a poem. After being divided into four groups, they collaborated on the activity and a student from each group read their group’s poem aloud.
After the creative poems were read, GWM Programs Committee Chair Janet Kelhoffer, along with GWM Secretary Betty Liedtke, talked about their roles in the museum. Since the junior board will be putting on a program themselves, just like the two groups of students before them, they need to learn about what goes into putting on a successful event. Kelhoffer emphasized the importance of the “wow factor” in impressing museum visitors and in providing an experience that goes above and beyond expectations.
GWM President Lou Benjamin then spoke about the history of the museum and leadership, stating, “Good leaders don’t tell; they ask.”
Benjamin also urged students to ask for help if and when they needed it for their upcoming class project. He also expressed his excitement for the GWM Junior Board program and thanked the students for being a part of the organization.
The PCHS Service Leadership class immediately began brainstorming ideas at the meeting after hearing the GWM members speak. The Junior Board program aims to involve and inspire younger generations to get involved in Georgia’s rich literary history while building skills in leadership, programming, and communication.