Tag Archives: education

Share Your Story with the NBA: Write for our newsletter, e-news, and blog!

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NBA Newsletter ScreenshotThe National Barn Alliance is seeking articles and contributors for our newsletter, “The Barn Door,” our e-newsletter and our blog, “The Barn Journal.”  The “The Barn Door” is bi-annual publication mailed to our membership.  Articles may also be posted on here, on “The Barn Journal,” and shared via the NBA’s Facebook, Twitter, Linked In page, or Youtube channel.

We encourage individuals as well as our state and local barn preservation partners to share updates on their activities. This is an opportunity to share your successes with others working to save historic barns in their own states. Article topics must be barn-focused such as history/preservation, grant programs, kids & education, photos, art, barn facts, endangered barns, saved barns, repair tips, preservation tips, book review, surveys & studies, barn raisings, and tours. We are also taking calendar submissions for conferences, tours and events.

Submission guidelines:

– Suggested length is 300 – 600 words. Photos are highly recommended.

– Send article in a MS Word, iWorks Pages, or as text in the body of the email.  Photos are preferred in .jpeg format as attachments with captions.

 

Articles for online publication are rolling.  Submission Deadlines for the printed newsletters are:

Fall/Winter Newsletter: August 16

Spring/Summer Newsletter: March 22

Contact us for our easy to use template at info@barnalliance.org.

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Can you imagine an America without barns dotting the plains or hills? We can’t. Join us in preserving our heritage. Before it is lost. Join us. 

Things will be warming up at our 2013 Winter Meeting!

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Preservation students from the University of Mary Washington at Weston Farm in Fauquier County, Virginia, where they documented several barns and outbuildings.

Preservation students from the University of Mary Washington examined several barns and outbuildings at Weston Farm in Fauquier County, Virginia.

As some of our members may already be aware, we are holding our Winter Board Meeting in Fredericksburg, Virginia, in partnership with the University of Mary Washington on February 15th-17th, 2013.  The focus of this year’s meeting, building mutually beneficial partnerships, could not be more timely given the economic climate!

Special guests at this year’s meeting include undergraduate and graduate students, many in Historic Preservation programs, who will present their work to research and document historic barns and farms in Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. Additional speakers, as well as a roundtable discussion, are planned to elaborate on selected successful partnerships in the barn preservation community.  The Board will also conduct work sessions to review our mission statement and action plan to ensure the NBA’s continued growth and relevance to the barn preservation movement at large.

We will be sure to provide additional information and updates on our efforts – so please stay tuned.  You can like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, and visit us anytime you want at www.barnalliance.org!

4-H Barn Owl Day in Schenectady County (NY)!

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In June, NBA Board Member Keith Cramer lead a workshop for Schenectady County 4-H in building nesting boxes for barn owls. Fourteen 4-H’ers each built an owl box. The boxes will be exhibited this summer at the County Fair.

Later, we had a presentation by Wes Laraway, Director of New York Wildlife Rescue Center, about  “Bringing Barn Owls Back to Eastern NY State”. The stars were two beautiful owls that had been healed of injuries at the Wildlife Rescue Center. Mr. Laraway explained the important role barn owls have in controlling rodents on a farm, and that if our farms had a place for the owls to nest, they would return. All these boxes will eventually be mounted at the 4-H’ers farms, so we will see if it works.

The workshop was a success and we already have some orders to sell more owl boxes. We hope to turn this into an annual event and help bring these wonderful birds back to our area farms.

Site Sponsor & Host: The Mabee Farm Historic Site.

Co-Sponsors: National Barn Alliance (NBA)  and Dutch Barn Preservation Society (DBPS).

Raising the Barn at the Anna Julia Cooper School

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Our Teamworks & Timbers program visited the Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School in Richmond, VA, recently.  Over 50 students from this independent, tuition-free, faith-based middle school for students of limited resources primarily from Richmond’s East End neighborhood participated in putting together this life-sized 3-D puzzle. The raising took 4 hours where the teens worked as a team to figure out how to put together this 130 piece, 1100 pound timber frame. Along the way they learned about types of wood, history of rural structures, parts of a barn, and most importantly why team work is so important…. one person can’t raise a barn. Unknowingly, they employed their math, science, engineering skills to raise this Dutch-style barn with great success.

Thank you to principal, Mike Maruca, and his wonderful faculty and staff for allowing us into their school and sharing Teamworks & Timbers program with their students!


Teamworks and Timbers is the National Barn Alliance educational outreach program bringing youth face-to-face with America’s disappearing rural heritage and trades. The program is designed to plant the seed for preservation while sharing history and teaching science/engineering/construction skills to youth in grades 4-12.

Buffalo 7th Graders Raise a Model Barn [video]

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On October 18, over 200 7th and 8th graders from the Waterfront School in Buffalo, NY, built a model of a “Dutch” barn typically found in New York from 130 wooden pieces using only simple hand tools and without nails.

Teamworks and Timbers is the National Barn Alliance educational outreach program bringing youth face-to-face with America’s disappearing rural heritage and trades. The program is designed to plant the seed for preservation while sharing history and teaching science/engineering/construction skills to youth in grades 4-12.

This program was in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation Conference being held in Buffalo from October 19-22. Stephanie Meeks, President & CEO, National Trust for Historic Preservation observed keenly the kids in the building process.