The History Channel has announced a yearlong initiative to honor the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth by raising money to conserve six historic sites related to his life and presidency.
The initiative, dubbed "Give a Lincoln for Lincoln," will encourage citizens to donate Lincoln-head pennies, five dollar bills or larger donations. The money will be donated to the National Park Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation to preserve Lincoln's birthplace in Hodgenville, KY., his boyhood home in Indiana, the Lincoln home in Springfield, Ill.; the Lincoln Memorial, Ford's Theater and Lincoln's Cottage in Washington D.C.
The channel will work with schools and communities to raise a minimum of $200,000, or $1,000 for each year since Lincoln was born, for educational and preservation programs at each of the sites. A contest for schools, planned for January, will reward teachers and students for designing Lincoln-themed lesson plans and coin collection boxes. Other contests are planned for February through May.
History Channel will also design an interactive mini-site at www.history.com/lincoln featuring original short-form videos and educational materials about the president and an electronic field-trip for schools will be streamed from Washington D.C. at the site next Feb. 12. It will also donate content to special exhibitions at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, Ford's Theater and the Library of Congress, among other sites.
