๐ƒ๐จ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ž ๐ญ๐จ ๐‡๐ž๐ฅ๐ฉ ๐†๐ซ๐ข๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐“๐ก๐ข๐ซ๐ ๐†๐ซ๐š๐๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ ๐‹๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ง ๐€๐›๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐†๐ซ๐ข๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ!

Each year, Griffith Third Graders participate in a week-long activity called โ€œThe ElmerJ Program,โ€ sponsored by the Historical Society. Students learn about our townโ€™s history and visit our Historical Park as part of their social studies curriculum.

๐—™๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐˜ ๐Ÿฎ ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜€, ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด๐—น๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ-๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—š๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ณ๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐—ฃ๐˜‚๐—ฏ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ฐ ๐—ฆ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—น๐˜€ ๐—ด๐—ผ๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ถ๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ, ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ธ๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐—บ ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—น๐—ถ๐—ณ๐—ฒ๐˜๐—ถ๐—บ๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—บ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€. ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ, ๐˜„๐—ฒ ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฒ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜†๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฒ.

Our volunteers & the Canadian National Police Service do presentations & tours at no cost, but there is a fee for the bus & books that the students use for the program. We donโ€™t want any student to miss out, so we are asking for donations to cover the fees. We hope to raise $1500 this year, and we have about $1000 more to go.

(๐˜Š๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ค๐˜ฌ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ๐˜ต ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ด๐˜ฆ ๐˜ข๐˜ฅ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ข๐˜ฃ๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฌ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฐ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ด ๐˜ง๐˜ณ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฎ ๐˜ด๐˜ต๐˜ถ๐˜ฅ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ๐˜ต๐˜ด ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ๐˜ฅ ๐˜ข๐˜ฏ ๐˜ข๐˜ณ๐˜ต๐˜ช๐˜ค๐˜ญ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฃ๐˜บ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ๐˜ฆ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ง ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ ๐˜‰๐˜ฆ๐˜ช๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜จ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ ๐˜ต๐˜ฆ๐˜ข๐˜ค๐˜ฉ๐˜ฆ๐˜ณ๐˜ด.)

๐—ฃ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜€๐—ฒ ๐—ฐ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ๐—ป๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ต๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ฝ ๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ผ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐—น๐—บ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐— ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฝ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐—ฐ๐—ฒ ๐—ณ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜€ ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟโ€™๐˜€ ๐Ÿฏ๐—ฟ๐—ฑ ๐—ด๐—ฟ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€.

Donate online at ghsinc.org/donate or send a check, payable to Griffith Historical Society, to 201 N. Griffith Blvd, #3, Griffith, IN 46319.

Thank you,
Martha Gatlin, Director

Liberty Trees Planted to Honor America’s 250th ๐ŸŒณ

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐–๐žโ€™๐ซ๐ž ๐ก๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ ๐’๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ง๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ!

As part of our celebration and dedication to preserve and honor historical events, the Griffith Historical Society was proud to partner with local schools to plant “Liberty Trees” in honor of America’s 250th Anniversary.

Student volunteers and our America 250 Committee got to work to plant a serviceberry tree at Beiriger, a maple tree at Wadsworth, an oak tree at Griffith High School, and another oak tree at St. Mary School.

Soon, we’ll have plaques to commemorate the trees’ significance. We hope the trees will be a continuing symbol and memorial for this historic year!

Special thanks to John Chance, principal of Griffith High School, Georgia Smith, the Director of Maintenance at the Griffith Public Schools, and Rebecca Maskovich, principal of St. Mary School, as well as our Griffith Historical Society volunteers, Valerie & John Wotkun and Marthann Gatlin, for coordinating and planting the trees, and Ken Karlstedt for taking photos.

Beiriger – Serviceberry Tree

Wadsworth – Maple Tree

High School – Oak Tree

St. Mary School – Oak Tree

Butterfly Day 2026

๐Ÿฆ‹Join us to celebrate the return of the monarchs, as they migrate up from the south!
๐Ÿ—“๏ธSunday May 24, 2026
๐Ÿ•ฐ๏ธ 1 – 4 pm

๐Ÿซ Visit the Griffith Depot & Train Museums (everything will be open to view!) and enjoy our Monarch Waystation garden!
๐Ÿฆ‹Learn about Monarchs, their amazing migration, & how they’ve become endangered. Jeanette Bobos, the retired Master Gardner who planted our garden, will be on on hand to share her knowledge.
๐ŸLearn about adding native plants to your garden.
๐ŸŒปBuy plants that help butterflies, especially monarchs! Weโ€™ll have a small selection of milkweed plants & other native plants.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธFlowers for 250 Years!

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐–๐ž’๐ซ๐ž ๐ก๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐”๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ž๐ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ ๐’๐ž๐ฆ๐ข๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ง๐ง๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ!
โ€ฆโ€ฆโˆโ˜…โˆโ˜…โ€ฆโ€ฆ(๐˜๐˜ข๐˜ท๐˜ฆ ๐˜บ๐˜ฐ๐˜ถ ๐˜ฃ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฌ๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ฐ๐˜ฏ ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฆ๐˜ฎ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ช๐˜ป๐˜ช๐˜ฏ๐˜จ ๐˜ต๐˜ฉ๐˜ข๐˜ต ๐˜ธ๐˜ฐ๐˜ณ๐˜ฅ?)
โค๏ธ๐Ÿค๐Ÿ’™Griffith Historical Society’s America 250 Committee worked with Imagine Griffith and citizen volunteers to plant red, white and blue flowers throughout downtown Griffith. The flowers were provided courtesy of the Parks Department.
๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธWe hope you enjoy them this summer as we continue to celebrate America’s 250th birthday!