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Highland's Perry Center Hosts Hometown Teams Smithsonian Exhibit

Highland’s Perry Center Hosts Hometown Teams Smithsonian Exhibit

The gym in the former Perry Middle School facility which is now the Perry Center for Highland Community College, recently hosted a traveling Smithsonian Institution exhibit on the value of hometown sports teams in small towns of rural America.  Hometown Teams is touring in six Kansas communities in 2015: the Hometown Teams host communities are Ellinwood, Goodland, Greensburg, Atchison, Perry, and Humboldt. 

The group of Perry residents who organized Hometown Teams, Perry, reported that from August 15 - September 27th

• We had 940 Visitors (based on our sign in log).
• Our Visitors were 60% local and 40% out of town.
• Kansas Visitors from outside of Perry came from Baldwin, Bern, Berryton, Big Springs, Elkhart, Emporia, Eskridge, Grantville, Holton, Lawrence, Leavenworth, Lecompton, Lenexa, McLouth,  Manhattan, Meriden, Mission Hills, Mulvane, Nortonville, Olathe, Osage City, Oskaloosa, Overland Park, Ozawkie, Sabetha, Silver Lake, Tonganoxie, Topeka, Wamego, Waverly, Wichita, Williamstown, Winchester, Winfield.
• Out-of-state Visitors came from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
• Our Exhibit was open 4 days a week for 15 hours per week.
• This was a 100% Volunteer effort and we had almost 50 different volunteers help during this project- putting in a total of over 550 hours.
• We received excellent coverage from the Valley Falls Vindicator with over 10 articles/press releases related to Hometown Teams.
• We were spotlighted on WIBW Sports News.
• The Perry High School stone that was rescued over 40 years ago has been donated by the Bigham Family and is now on display at Perry Lecompton High School.
• We now have the beginnings of what could be a permanent display at some point or smaller spotlight displays in the future.
• We have shared some of the photos taken during the Exhibit on our Flickr feed which you can view at http://www.perrypride.org/enewsletter (Click on View our Flickr Feed). 

Hometown Teams explores the way sports build and unite communities. The enthusiasm and dedication of fans, athletes, and coaches bonds us across time, cultures, generations, and geography.  By engaging with photographs, audio and video clips, and hands-on components, visitors to the Hometown Teams Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition learn how sports continually shape American culture and society. From the little leagues to the big leagues and everywhere in between, sports are a significant part of our national narrative.

The Kansas Humanities Council sponsors Hometown Teams in Kansas in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street program, a one-of-a-kind cultural project that serves small towns and residents of rural America. Support for Museum on Main Street has been provided by the US Congress.

For more information about Hometown Teams, contact Tracy Quillin, Associate Director of the Kansas Humanities Council, at tracy@kansashumanities.org.

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