A common theme in the late evening conversations at Impact Fund events is the exasperation we all feel at being lectured on America’s sins by privileged, blue-haired, Ivy League graduates who couldn’t identify Kansas or Nebraska on a map. Fortunately, there are exciting new opportunities to invest in higher education discussed in previous issues of The Brief. Today, however, investing in restoring American civic health is the topic for consideration.
Ultimately, these aren’t partisan issues. Even those of us with strong partisan commitments, when pressed, will place our chips less on the latest political fashion and more on leaders and organizations well-built both for this moment and for the long haul. There is nothing fundamentally partisan about this, the Bradley Impact Fund approach. This is why such a clearly nonpartisan and devotedly patriotic organization like the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA) is so frequently chosen by our members.
However, you might not be aware of how MVLA is involved in classroom instruction and creative education on civics. Making sure our political leaders are held accountable, and bringing transparency to their efforts and projects, is absolutely vital. But just as vital is stewarding the Founders’ legacy, especially in venues, like Mount Vernon, where millions can touch, smell, and feel the home of the man the Founders themselves considered the greatest among them.
Most of us have been on that slow walk over the same floors that creaked under the boots of our first president. We’ve poked our heads in the parlor, office, and bedrooms, taken in the expansive kitchen, marveling at the care taken to preserve or recreate the small things whose features are never properly conveyed in a textbook or video.
This is where the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association’s mission to steward Washington’s home is most impactful. And with the semiquincentennial approaching, the Association is doing even more. As this newsletter hits mailboxes, the Association’s Teaching 250 Program is ramping up under the direction of the George Washington Teacher Institute. Leaning into the irreplaceable asset of the Mount Vernon home and grounds, visitors and all who are curious about Washington’s enduring impact on America will have access to new education and experiential programs, including the ability to take an in-depth virtual tour of the Mansion in the Orientation Theater. All interested civics educators are invited to use a fresh curriculum developed on-site, under the Association’s stewardship, that brings to life the personal and historic dimensions of Mount Vernon.
At the core of Teaching 250, however, is the irreplaceable experience of the place itself. With the Mansion Revitalization Project now in full swing, the physical structure of this incredible monument is being strengthened with great care so that it has the integrity to welcome students of all ages for generations to come.
By the time Impact Fund members, or any interested visitors, return for the 250th anniversary, they’ll have the opportunity to participate in such Teaching 250 initiatives as Patriots Path—a Revolutionary War encampment—and chat with the soldiers to learn about life as an eighteenth-century soldier. They’ll be able to more deeply understand Mount Vernon through new historical character engagements on the bowling green and walk through a brand-new exhibit on the life and times of George Washington.
Fund members who love the home of the father of the American Revolution would do well to take a closer look at what the Mount Version Ladies’ Association is doing to make the approaching anniversary a more powerful experience. Our longstanding partnership has already made possible countless irreplaceable experiences on the bluff overlooking the Potomac. We look forward to even more collaboration in the future.
