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Members of the Chocowinity Middle School History Club will be hosting their version of a Wax Museum on Feb. 27 at the middle school. Mandy Knox, a history teacher at Chocowinity Middle School, said the event is a way for the students to acknowledge the contributions of African Americans through history and bring awareness to the history club itself.

“The kids were able to choose the characters of their choice, some contemporary and others historic,” said Know. “They will be situated in the hallways throughout the school and appear frozen like statues. When someone comes up and presses a pretend button, they will start talking about their chosen character. What also makes this special is that regardless of race, Hispanic, Black, or White, they will all be participating.”

Knox also wanted to give a special thanks to the Historic Port of Washington Project, for donating a new button-making machine. Knox said she approached Stephen Farrell, the curator of special collections at the Brown Library, to see if he might be able to help them find a new machine to replace the old one, and all of the pieces fell into place.

“We used the machine to print the buttons with the names and faces of the individuals the students had chosen,” said Knox. “Our whole premise was to sell the buttons for one dollar as a fundraiser for the club. We ended up making $300. I’m so grateful for Stephen and his help and that HPOW was willing to support the kids and help them with the project.”

“Our mission and purpose is to perpetuate the history of Washington,” said Betsy Hester, HPOW board of trustees member. “So being able to support the history students history club made all the sense in the world. Hopefully, our support will help the Chocowinity history club continue to grow and encourage other area students to start their history clubs as well.”

 

The event will run from 6 p.m. till 7 p.m. on Thursday, February 27, at the Chocowinity Middle School (3831 US HWY 17 S, Chocowinity). There will be food trucks, a scavenger hunt for the kids, plus information tables about the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum, and the Black Oral History Project of Beaufort County. The event is free and open to the public.