Gary Jacobson , LCSW , CASAC 6 Walnut Lane Rosendale , NY 12472 845-389-7273 gary . jacobson57 @ gmail . com
May 24 , 2021
Greetings ,
My association with the group in Downeast Maine seeking to establish a National Heritage Area is as a volunteer working to establish The Bold Coast Scenic Bikeway which resides within the envisioned National Heritage Area boundaries .
Through that experience it became clear to me that a lot of good could come from establishing an entity with a purpose of unifying efforts of the many organizations with similar values and goals . It was a struggle to conceptualize how such an entity could be established and maintained . Discussions took place between some like-minded people and organizations . They yielded little more than an agreement that it would be good and important for our region to continue to explore this further .
In short time we learned that funding was available to study and work on establishing a National Heritage Area in our region . We learned that a NHA could essentially be what we had earlier envisioned , and that others in our region had already been thinking about a NHA . This confluence of events , and my interests and experience led to my participation on the Feasibility Study Committee .
My learning about the National Heritage program and the Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area where I reside , has resulted in an even greater appreciation and pride for the region that is my first home . Similarly residents and visitors to a future NHA in our Downeast Maine will be inspired by it and see their home here or from where they traveled from in a new way .
Gary Jacobson
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