History is front and center at the Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center in downtown Chambersburg. Step into the African American History Is American History selfie installation. Add your selfie to the exhibit. Discover distinctive people, like Royal Christian, Joseph Winters, and Zelda Barbour. Share a favorite quote or story. Take a moment and read about Franklin County’s USCT (U.S. Colored Troops) from Dum Spiro, Spero: Chambersburg’s Black Civil War Soldiers and Sailors or read the oral history of Bernard Ruffin’s Voices of Chambersburg. Exhibit open from February to May 1. Come in person or join virtually by snapping a selfie with your own backdrop and emailing to jpollard@explorefranklincountypa.com.
March brings Women’s History to the 11/30 Visitors Center with Vision, Voices, and the VOTE, a second self-building installation to encourage public participation. Learn about some of the first women of Franklin County, including revolutionary veteran Margaret Cochran Corbin and Franklin County’s first female judge, Carol Van Horn. Snap a selfie in person or join virtually by taking a picture of influential women in your life. Share the words of women, who inspired you. Exhibit open March 1 to May 1.
Inspired by the Martin Luther King quote: “The time is always right to do what is right,” Franklin County Visitors Bureau is sponsoring an essay contest. The contest is open to young and old. Doing the right thing shaped African American history, women’s history, and all of American history. Answer the question: What is your right thing? Submit the essay to Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center, 15 South Main Street, Chambersburg, PA 17201. For prizes and further details, visit https://www.explorefranklincountypa.com/home/black-history-month-essay-contest/
Throughout April, Franklin County Visitors Bureau focuses on 300 years of American history in the county. The 2021 celebration will use cuisine as a connector of culture and history by hosting a series of four-cooking demonstrations—from the Pennsylvania German cooking of early immigrants through more current connections to Latin American flavors. Food connects people to home and family, to tradition and society, and brings people together. To top off the three-month celebration on May 1, Franklin County 11/30 Visitors Center will host Franklin County Flavor–300 Years of Food, a special multi-course, multi-cuisine food event. With more than 10,000 square feet of space and using two seatings, the 11/30 Visitors Center will safely be able to host up to 150 for this one-of-a-kind taste of history. Ticket sales open March 22.