The Amana Heritage Society has been awarded a $10,000 Endowment Challenge Grant from the Iowa Cultural Trust.

The Endowment Challenge Grant requires that recipients raise a three-to-one match for the grant funds and that all funds be placed in a permanent endowment. The interest from this fund must be used to support the operating expenses of the organization.

The endowment is critical to the sustainability of our Amana Heritage Museum and seven historical sites located throughout the Colonies. These sites are visited by tens of thousands of people each year. Interest from the Amana Heritage Society Endowment provides the support to maintain and enhance not only these historical buildings, but also the photographs, documents, and artifacts that are so crucial to telling Amana's story to future generations. Your endowment pledge will allow us to preserve Amana's heritage for our children and grandchildren so they too can learn about Amana's unique history and culture.

In addition to appeals to area individuals and businesses, several special fund raising events are also planned. This campaign is part of the Heritage Society's long-range goal of building it's endowment to $500,000 by 2015.

Let's not lose this opportunity to build our endowment!

Amana is always home and having the Amana Heritage Museum to come home to means a lot to all of us. Please consider contributing to this worthy cause. You can reply using the printable form. Online donations will be available soon.

The Endowment Challenge Grant Committee is co-chaired by John Zuber of Middle Amana and Kim Zuber of South Amana.