New Year New Opportunities

Well, it is almost midnight and the start of a new year - finally. For me every new year is a new opportunity to Teach, Learn, and of course, DO. Next Friday I leave for Korea for a week followed by a trip to England and then wrap up January with a 3-day training course for the Army Corps of Engineers. A very nice way to start the new year. I hope your new year gives you changes to Learn, Teach and Do as well. So Happy New Year! Cheers. jv

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone - I hope that Santa brought you approved grant funding, more staff, innovative technology, more visitors, and, for some of you, a new roof.
Interpreters give a lot to their visitors each year - thank you all for that. If you are an interpreter - every day can be Christmas and each of you a "Santa".
And the photo - well - just be careful what you ask Santa for....

Korean Alpine Arboretum

Well, it looks like 2010 is going to get off of a very interesting start. We begin our New Orleans project the first week of Jan, but then I will start working on a National Alpine Arboretum project in Korea. We had been working on this in proposal stage for many months now and it finally came through. The only thing I am not looking forward to is the 14 hour flight! I have worked in Korea before, with my friend and associate Dr. Ju-Hee Lee, and we will be working on this projet too. I will post updates and some photos when I return from the first site visit.

On to the Susquehanna River

The NPS Lincoln birth place and boyhood home were great sites and doing the interpretive plan should be fun. With a day of rest I am now off to work on the interpretive services development for the Susquehanna River Corridor. I did the interpretive plan for the corridor last year. This trip I'll work on the self-guiding auto tour including working on the audio CD for the tour. The photo shows a general view of the river in summer (probably be a bit chilly this coming week).

Off to Kentucky

I was recently awarded the contract to develop the interpretive plan for Abraham Lincoln Birthplace National Historical Park, in Kentucky. The Park preserves two farm sites where Abraham Lincoln lived as a child. You can learn more about this NPS site at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln_Birthplace_National_Historical_Park. I am heading off to Kentucky on Wednesday for a few days on site to start the interpretive plan. The photo is of the reconstruction of the Lincoln families cabin originally located here.

Mi'kmaq Program Plan

Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources and NS Tourism, Culture and Heritage. JVA has sub-contracted to Form:Media, a premier Nova Scotia Consulting firm, to assist in the development of a Mi'Kmaq Interpretive Programming Interpretive Plan, for the Provance of Nova Scotia. This project will inventory the wealth of Mi'Knaq First Nation stories in the Province, and how they might be interpreted in NS Provincial Parks. You can visit Form:Media at their web site: http://www.form-media.ca. The project is due to be completed by March/April, 2010.

2010 Interpretive Training Courses

We are planning ahead for 2010 for my two interpretive training courses I offer in Wales, UK. The courses for 2010 include: 19 – 21 May 2010 – Planning and Design of Interpretive Media – Cost £264 and 31 August – 3 September 2010 – Interpretive Master Planning – Cost £357. These courses are offered at Plas Tan y Bwlch (Snowdonia National Park Training Center in Wales). If you would like more details on these coures send me an e-mail (jvainterp@aol.com) and I will send you the course content. We attract participants world-wide. We have have participants from South Africa, Sweden, Channel Islands, the US, and from throughout the UK.

The photos show the training center and one of the class activities from last year.