Above/ DuPage Foundation President & CEO Dave McGowan (pictured second from right) presents a check for $18,000 to Naper Settlement to commemorate the Community Needs Grant provided by DuPage Foundation to Naper Settlement. Also pictured are Julie Nelligan, director of development, Naper Settlement; John Koranda, immediate past chair, Naperville Heritage Society board; Rena Tamayo-Calabrese, president & CEO, Naper Settlement. (Photo courtesy Naper Settlement)
The Naperville Heritage Society was one of 36 DuPage County nonprofit organizations to receive a grant through DuPage Foundation’s Fall Community Needs Grant Program. DuPage Foundation awarded $363,192 to organizations working in the areas of Education, Arts and Culture, the Environment and Animal Welfare. The Naperville Heritage Society received a grant in the amount of $18,000 to help support Naper Settlement’s real-time, interactive, virtual learning field trips for teachers and students.
With a commitment to the community and a focus to the future, the Naperville Heritage Society and Naper Settlement collect, document, preserve, and support the history of Naperville and beyond while serving as a unique educational and cultural resource for visitors of all ages. Naper Settlement’s in-person field trips, which welcomed around 35,000 schoolchildren and their teachers in 2019, were cut short in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To continue the museum’s mission of providing innovative and interactive educational programming, Naper Settlement created new virtual learning field trips that are launching this month.
Naper Settlement selected several of its existing in-person field trips to modify and transformed them into interactive virtual learning programs, including Living History, History Station (formerly School for Tools), and Voices of the Past: The Underground Railroad in Northern Illinois. The museum also created a new “born digital” program, Lessons in Resilience that meets ISBE standards for social studies and social and emotional learning. Each field trip will incorporate both asynchronous (AR and VR filmed and photographed) and synchronous (real-time) experiences.
For more information about Naper Settlement and the virtual learning field trips, visit www.napersettlement.org/621/Virtual-Field-Trips
Naper Settlement / Webster Street at Aurora Avenue
Naper Settlement is a nationally accredited, award-winning outdoor living history museum set on 13 magnificent acres in the heart of Naperville. Located 30 miles from Chicago, the museum is home to thirty historical structures dating back as early as the 1830s. Featuring exhibits, special events, educational programming and more, Naper Settlement is where history comes alive and the community comes to connect. For more information, visit www.napersettlement.org or call (630) 420-6010.
Naperville Heritage Society since 1969
Founded in 1969, the Naperville Heritage Society is a not-for-profit organization and administrator of Naper Settlement, the City of Naperville’s museum. With a commitment to the community and a focus to the future, the mission of the Naperville Heritage Society is to collect, document, preserve, and support the history of Naperville, Illinois past and present.
DuPage Foundation since 1986
DuPage Foundation, a 501(c)(3) community foundation, is the philanthropic leader in DuPage County, Illinois. DuPage Foundation manages more than $95 million in assets and has awarded more than $55 million in grants to not-for-profit organizations serving the residents of DuPage County and beyond since its founding in 1986. Individuals and organizations seeking to provide impactful support in DuPage County to address critical issues can create powerful, customizable gift solutions and partnerships through DuPage Foundation. More at dupagefoundation.org. Doing a world of good in our own backyard.™
Story and photo submitted by Naper Settlement.
