Letter from the Executive Director
Dear Friends,
We kicked off 2020 at full steam, bringing the history of Minidoka far and wide with our programs reaching audiences across Idaho beginning with the Minidoka Civil Liberties Symposium hosted by the Community Libary in Ketchum and the Boise City Department of Arts and History; a Friends of Minidoka meet and greet in Twin Falls; the Minidoka visitor center grand opening; partnering with the Idaho State Museum to bring the Smithsonian’s Righting a Wrong exhibit to Boise; and Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp film screenings from Boise to Idaho Falls, and San Francisco and San Jose, California. By mid-March, our ambitious plans for the year changed drastically with the outbreak of COVID-19, but we remain tremendously proud of these programs and what they bode for our future, as we aim to reach new audiences and accomplish more than ever through creative collaborations with new and old partners.
With the rest of the year reflecting our new realities, your support has meant that Friends of Minidoka could refocus and reimagine, and continue to spread our mission in creative ways during the pandemic. We successfully took on new challenges, and instead of greeting visitors and leading field trips at Minidoka, we devised hours of digital content through Tadaima! A Community Virtual Pilgrimage, and continued our behind-the-scenes work on our broadcast documentary and educational curriculum. Virtual educational tools have now become even more critically necessary, and we are confident that the resources we are developing will have an even wider use than originally imagined in the years ahead.
While we understand the difficulties this year, we need your help now more than ever. Your support helps us meet new challenges and transform them into opportunities to benefit future generations, and we look forward to the work that awaits us in 2021. Your support will ensure that Friends of Minidoka can continue to grow in 2021 as we recommit to our work to:
Complete and Distribute our Minidoka documentary for public television, told through the oral histories of first-hand survivors and their children, to bring the story of Minidoka to audiences nationwide.
Unroll our 7th-12th grade educational curriculum to provide free resources for educators to bring this history to their classrooms.
Develop innovative ways to provide virtual outreach and distance learning about the history of Minidoka.
Ensure that a lack of funding for school buses doesn't prevent Idaho educators from bringing their students on field trips to Minidoka in the future. With the Robert C. Sims Community Education Fund, students can experience the power of place in understanding nationally important history that happened here in Idaho.
Thanks to the generosity of two anonymous donors investing in our educational programs, your gift will be matched dollar-for-dollar for up to $20,000 received by December 31. If you’ve been considering a gift to Friends of Minidoka, your impact will be doubled!
Please consider honoring the legacy of Minidoka as part of your year-end giving and allow us to grow our mission and impact in 2021. Every donation is deeply appreciated, and is vital to continuing our mission-driven work to preserve the legacy of the Minidoka experience and educate new generations about this American tragedy.
Thank you for being a Friend,
Mia Russell
Executive Director